Calvin Synod Herald, 1998 (98. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1998-07-01 / 4. szám
COLVIN SYNOD HEROLD- 5 -AMERIKAI MAGYAR REFORMÁTUSOK LOPJA dAhe Ambassador őfA€un^arp The Ambassador of Hungary Dear Friend: On two previous occasions I turned to you asking your help to secure a successful Senate vote to admit Hungary together with Poland and the Czech Republic into NATO. Today, I want to thank you, congratulate you and commend you and everybody who helped this cause by making a valuable contribution to this effort. On April 30, with an overwhelming 80-19 margin, the U.S. Senate gave its consent to Hungary's membership in NATO. It could have been easy to say that this decision resulted from just the hard work of the last months or years, but it would not be true. It has to do with the need to correct the historical wrong of the Yalta pact. It has to do with the 1965 Revolution which yet again demonstrated our desire to belong where we have always belonged: the community of free democracies. It has to do with Hungary's pioneering efforts in the late 80s to dismantle the Soviet system. It has to do with our current progress in establishing democratic institutions, creating a functioning market economy, respecting human rights and maintaining good neighborly relations. And of course it has to do with you, Americans and Hungarian origin, who throughout many years represented our case to become a full member of the family of democratic nations and our devotion to the shared values and interests towards your legislators. I am pleased that the issue of NATO membership became a unifying policy in which Hungarians again demonstrated: together we can achieve more. It was due this joint effort that made this historic event possible. Again, I wish to extend my own, my Government's and our nation's gratitude to you for supporting and actively assisting the cause of Hungary's NATO membership. Sincerely, Dr. György Bánlaki Church aims new look at controversial monk by Victor L. Simpson Associated Press FLORENCE, Italy - It was an odd group paying tribute to a 15th-century monk, especially one reviled for his bonfire of the vanities and later burned at the stake as a heretic. An anti-corruption prosecutor from Milan, the philosopher-mayor of Venice and the cardinal-archbishop of Florence were among the notables marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Girolamo Savonarola. His life and works are being examined for relevance to today's Italy and for possible rehabilitation - and even beatification - by the Roman Catholic Church. As part of his clean-up of a decadent Florence, Savonarola's supporters burned books, personal ornaments, lewd pictures and gaming tables. Prosecutor Gherardo Colombo's participation in the ceremonies May 23 marking Savonarola's death was particularly symbolic. Like the monk, Colombo has battled entrenched power and uncovered widespread, systematic corruption, as a protagonist in modern Italy's long-running "Clean Hands" anti-graft crusade. Savonarola "was a tireless preacher for moral reform of civil society," said the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano in an unusual tribute to someone once considered an enemy of the church. Indeed, he was renowned for clashing with tyrannical and corrupt rulers. He set up a democratic republic in Florence in 1494, but his downfall came in a battle with Alexander VI, a Borgia pope considered one of the most morally questionable figures ever to sit on the throne of St. Peter. "With his death, the prospects for democracy in Florence faded for centuries," said the Rev. Gianfranco Rolfi. Rolfi is a historian who heads the archdiocese's commission gathering documentation for Savonarola's possible beatification. The commission intends to answer one important issue for the church: Whether the excommunication handed down by Pope Alexander can be considered legal. Historians contend that the burning of books and artworks was negligible compared to Savonarlo's tirades against corruption, which not only annoyed those in power but began to grate on ordinary Florentines. Still, within a few years of his death, Florentines came forward with the first proposals for his beatification. One of the twenty miniatures in the "March of Truth" by Dr. Stephen Szabó is on this great pre-reformer. The book by its writer is affectionately called "Our Book." The Annual Church Workers and Presbyters Conference for 1998 will be held Sunday, Sept. 27, 1998, from 2 p.m. until approximately. 6:30 p.m.., at the First Hungarian Reformed Church in Walton Hills. Lunch will be served at 12 until 2 p.m.. Our Topic will be "The 21 st Century, are we ready as a Church?" Our guest speaker will be Rev. William Nyerges. Mrs. Julie Reitz Secretary
