Dénesi Tamás (szerk.): Collectanea Sancti Martini - A Pannonhalmi Főapátság Gyűjteményeinek Értesítője 7. (Pannonhalma, 2019)
II.Közlemények
166 Szokolay Domokos: Sümegh Lothár internálása és rövid pályaképe Domokos Szokolay Who speaks frankly... The internment of Lothár Sümegh (1907–1984) and his career in short This paper presents the main stages of the career of a Benedictine monk, Lothár Sümegh. The erudite teacher fond of music obtained his educational diploma of Latin and Hungarian in Pannonhalma. He taught in Pápa, Győr and Komárom. In the course of World War II, during 1941 and 1942, he fulfilled his pastoral ministry as an army chaplain in the front line. After the war, he was placed in Sopron, where he wrote articles in Soproni Ujság , a public newspaper representing national and Christian values. He actively disputed with communist journalists and politicians bustling about in Sopron county. In his writings, he gallantly took his stand for the values of democracy and consistently cast light upon the antidemocratic and aggressive procedures of the political police under communist leadership. People responsible for the enormities committed during the war were condemned by Sümegh also, but he defended the honour of the simple, guiltless Hungarian soldiers in his articles. This was also the way he took his stand for people kept confined under inhuman circumstances in the internment camp in Sopron. Because of his writings, as an “unreliable” person, he was interned by the political police for a few days, and after having been released, he was under police surveillance for a long time. In the following years, he was exposed to persecution, he was forced to move to a constrained habitation in 1950, he was not allowed to practice his educational and pastoral ministry: he could only function as an organist since 1953. In 1956, when the revolution was suppressed, he left Hungary and conducted his pastoral ministry in emigration in the West, he supported young Hungarians as a teacher and headmaster. In the 1970s, he was also in charge of the economic affairs of the Benedictine Order. After 1960, he stayed in Mariazell for long periods caring for the spiritual affairs of his compatriots. He spent the autumn of his life in Mariazell.
