Reformátusok Lapja, 1970 (70. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1970-04-01 / 4. szám
12 REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA FOLLOWING IN MY GRANDFATHER’S FOOTSTEPS Sixty years ago a young man started out from the little village of Tiszaluc in South-Zemplén county to find a way to earn a living for his family of four children. This young man was my grandfather. He traveled the same way as other Hungarians. His brother-in-law had already left the country and sent back a boat-ticket and wrote, “Come Louis, you can easily find work with your ability and support your family.” How could one describe the feeling that was in his heart, when he said good-bye to his family and started out on the long and uncertain journey? He did not know what would happen in his life. In America, warm hearts and work awaited him. He became a coachman for a furniture factory. In the “technical century”, the ambition of the Hungarian people showed, he did not let himself stay with this meager job. He studied for a few weeks so that he could drive a truck. He sent his salary home. He lived modestly, so that his family could live well. Then came the first world war. Louis’ wife was economical. She put the money in the bank so that when her husband returned it would be there. The news of the beginning of the war came. The fire of the war did not spare his family. Two little sons died from diphtheria and his pretty 17 year old daughter was killed while trying to run from the fighting. There was no way in which the father could stay in America. He returned home to cry at his children’s graves. At home another surprise waited for him. After losing the war, Hungary’s economy fell through. He went to the bank to withdraw what he had earned, but he only received enough to buy two small pigs. Troubled, he said, “Sophie, what did you do? This amount of money shows a few days work, not eight years.” To this his wife replied, sadly, “Do not cry. We have lost a lot, but nothing can take the place of our dear children. Do not be troubled about the loss of material things. My life, my health and my honesty remain. Come let the three of us return to America.” — Louis Farkas once again began the struggle in a foreign land alone, for my grandmother and father could not accompany him. In America, Louis returned to his old job where he received better pay. He continued to send letters home pleading for his family to follow, but my grandmother was unable to join him. Finally, my grandfather went back. After working a few years he earned enough to buy a house and lot. The house “The American Farkas” was one of the nicest in his village. They lived together many more years, they passed their sixtieth anniversary too. Both of them reached the age of ninety-one, when they joined their children in the quiet cemetery along the Tisza River. My grandmother passed away first and my grandfather followed two and a half months later. This is the story. But let me go further. In my student years I spent my summers in Tiszaluc. My younger brother and I were my grandparents only comfort, because my father had died at the age of 42. My grandfather told many stories about America. He reminised about the Hungarian congregation in Cleveland. Once, he took me up to the church tower of the Tiszaluc Reformed Church and showed me one bell saying, “Look grandson, we bought this. We Hungarians who were working in America, sent home the money.” Now whenever I return to my village, the bells do not just ring “Vivos voco, mortuos flango” (I call the living and weep for the dead, but they also ring out the love of our native land, along with a love for “the dear white-haired mother” the 400 year old Hungarian Reformed Church. Now, I follow in my grandfather’s steps. I am spending a few months in America studying theology with the help of a third-generation Dutch professor. I am also looking for the warm-hearts of which my grandfather spoke. I am going to visit The Cemetery of Cleveland, to look for the graves of my Aunt Eszter Csengeri and Uncle Sándor Csengeri, who were my grandmother’s brother and sister-in-law. They showed in action, after the second world war, their belief in God’s word, “But whoso hath this world’s good and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? — My little children let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” I. John 3:17-18. Louis Zoltán Farkas, Pastor, Sátoraljaújhely, Hungary. JESUIT IN N.C.C. The Rev. Richard W. Rousseau, a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, has been appointed Assistant Director in the National Council of Churches’ Department of Faith and Order, it was announced by Dr. R. H. Edwin Espy, the NCC’s general secretary. The appointment is effective immediately. Father Rousseau comes to the council from Fairfield University, Connecticut, where lie has been Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies since 1960. He is co-editor of the 14-volume Bruce Contemporary College Theology Series and of an Old Testament Study Guide. In his new position, Father Rousseau will be helping to prepare a major North American Conference on Faith and Order, the first such event to be held since the Oberlin conference of 1957. Proposed for sometime in 1972, the conference is expected to raise basic theological questions of importance to both Protestant and Roman Catholic Christians. Widely active in ecumenical affairs, Father Rousseau founded the 1963 National Ecumenical Workshops. He spent one year in India as a Ful- brivht Scholar and before his appointment to Fair- field University, was an assistant professor at Boston College. Father Rousseau took his undergraduate work at Holy Cross College and Boston College, where he received his B.A. and M.A. decrees in Philosophy and English. He later studied at the College St. Albert de Louvain, Belgium, earning an S.T.L. degree there. He also has an S.T.D. degree from Ottawa University and a Ph.D. degree from St. Paul’s University, Canada. His appointment makes Father Rousseau the sixth Roman Catholic on the executive staff of the Protestant-Eastern Orthodox council. NEWS—NCC
