Egyháztörténeti Szemle 18. (2017)

2017 / 4. szám - SUMMARIES IN ENGLISH - Sági György: Savior of Kalocsa, Archbishop József Grősz

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Egyháztörténeti Szemle XVIII/4 (2017)

Caritas was founded and led by her, but unfortunately the bolshevist power banned it already in 1918. Following the death of countess Pálffyné in 1915, she became the chairwoman of the Nationwide Catholic Women Association, which had an apartment house for catholic working-women and operated the Circle of Mothers and the Patronage Department. More than 1500 families and 3500 children were taken care of by the Association. In 1918 she founded the Hungarian Catholic Women Associations Nationwide Union, which became the head of 9 large nationwide catholic women associations. The writer has tried to demonstrate the countess's catholic women work with presenting exact stories and examples based on the resources. She was a very powerful woman in the Horthy-era who took a public role. We could say that she embodied the modern woman: proved by her roles: she was a wife, a mother, writer, chairwoman, helper of poor and fallen, had a public life, she was a catholic fighter and at some point, she was also a politician.

Savior of Kalocsa, Archbishop József Grősz

Sági, György

In this study the author examined why, under what circumstances got József Grősz, Archbishop of Kalocsa and Bács the titles the “Savior of Kalocsa” and the “Protector of the town” at the end of the Second World War. The author reported about how he refused to leave his see despite the evacuation declaring that he only would leave it if everyone had left the settlement.

After the Soviet occupation of Kalocsa (31 October 1944) the archbishop used every means that was available for him to facilitate the lives of the residents. In order to achieve this, he had invited on the 23rd October 1944 Gyula Hazai, former High Sheriff to lead Kalocsa because by that time the pro-German Mayor István Lantay had fled from the town, hence it remained without leadership.

The archbishop used his diplomatic abilities to establish a good relationship with Soviet officers (Dalicky, Cherenkov, Leonidov) to alleviate the people's difficulties. He called the parties for peace in his archbishop’s circular of 18 November 1944. In this circular he named Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya as the legitimate head of state of Hungary. More priests helped the work of the archbishop. It should be highlighted among them in any case: Chancellor Károly Gombos and Vidame Elek Sághy.

In his study the author showed also how the fact that the system shifted to the left affected Archbishop Grősz and the archdiocese of Kalocsa between 1944 and 1946.