The Eighth Tribe, 1979 (6. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1979-12-01 / 12. szám
Page 6 THE EIGHTH TRIBE December, 1979 Katolikus Magyarok Vasárnapja Catholic Hungarians’ Sunday Celebrates 85th Anniversary Religious statuary in the window of the small store front at 1739 Mahoning Ave. at S. Portland Ave., Youngstown, Ohio, catches the eye of westbound drivers. If they look quickly they might see a small sign “Religious Articles” above the door. But there is much more than meets the eye behind that window: an intense loyalty to a nation in bondage and devotion to a religion which has sustained that nation’s people whether they remain in their fettered fatherland or have fled to the freedom of America. Within those brick walls is printed every week the 85-year-old Katolikus Magyarok Vasárnapja — the “Catholic Hungarians’ Sunday” — which was founded in October, 1894, in Cleveland as The Messenger of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. It was first published by Msgr. Charles Bohm who had been sent to America and Cleveland to found St. Elizabeth Church there, to tend the spiritual needs of the immigrant Hungarians. The little paper also helped them feel more at home in their new country and by 1895 there would be 700 subscribers. St. Elizabeth Church was destined to become the oldest Hungarian Church in the United States and the newspaper would become the only Hungarian Catholic weekly in America. Five years later, the paper was still being published but by laity and the name was changed to the present title. Not until 1941 would it once again be in religious hands as the Franciscans of St. Stephen, Province of Transylvania, took charge with the Rev. Benedict Biro editor-in-chief and the Rev. Tarcisius Kukla as editor. Father Kukla would later come to Youngstown and at his death in 1948 he was administrator of Our Lady of Hungary Church. That year, the Rev. Nicholas Dengl would be winding up three years as chaplain of Hungarian refugees in northern Italy and would come to the United States. He spent four years on the newspaper staff and 12 years as pastor of Holy Trinity church in Barberton before coming here to be delegate provincial of the Franciscans’ Mt. Alverna Friary of the Commissariat of St. Stephen. The paper, with declining subscriptions, had moved to Youngstown in 1961, with the Rev. Peter Tornay, Alverna Friary superior, as managing editor, and the Rev. Gabriel Takács, then delegate provincial, as editor-in-chief. Assistant was István Eszterhás. Today, the paper has an international circulation of 3,500 but only about 100 of them are here, probably to members of Youngstown’s five Hungarian churches. Originally, the paper was published twice weekly, on Thursday and Sunday, but it is now printed only on Saturday for a Sunday publishing date and is printed a week ahead because of mailing time. Most pages are in Hungarian but articles in English are included. More often than not, there are no bylines despite the fact many of the writers are famous correspondents in their own right. “They dare not sign their names,” Father Dengl explains, “for fear of retaliation. In these articles they keep the Hungarian people informed about what is really happening to their country, about the increasing encroachment of communism. Those who go ‘home" for a visit are treated royally but they do not see that there is really no freedom of speech, really no freedom of religion, no real development of Hungarian literature.” The writers are not necessarily religious personnel and they are from Europe, Australia, Germany and other countries besides the United States. Most columns are more political than religious and there are even want ads and a sports column. It is the older Hungarians who subscribe to the paper, Father Dengl assumes, those with family members in Hungary or in Transylvania. Recently five issues were devoted to the plight of Hungarians in Transylvania. With justifiable pride, Father Dengl tells us of the 10,000-volume library specializing in Hungarian books at Mt. Alverna Friary on S. Belle Vista Avenue
