HIS-Press-Service, 1976 (1. évfolyam, 1. szám)
1976 / 1. szám
HIS Press-Service, A Review of 1976 Page 5 the Church's right to offer Christian teaching in its churches; the youth who show an interest are allowed to take part. Through selfless effort on the part of religion teachers, this method of Christian teaching gradually replaced the religious instruction repressed in the schools as a way of bringing the Gospel to the youth. In contrast to the religious instruction held in the schools, however, the State agencies no longer had any legal means for directly influencing the religious instruction given in the churches. Under the guise,' therefore, of supporting a formal presentation of religious instruction to replace the Christian teaching given in the churches, the government demanded that the Church adopt certain norms in the presentation of religious instruction. Despite vociferous protests from the priests,who were directly affected, and some bishops, the six-point plan for regulating religious instruction in the churches went into effect on January 15, 1975. The State interpretation of the plan's general statements soon justified the fears expressed by Church leaders. Under the pretext of helping regulate religious instruction, official controllers insisted on being present at religious instruction held in the churches; in addition, the government agency asked for a name list of participants and worked for a reduction both in the number of hours of religious instruction given and in the number of persons participating, irregardless of the number interested in having religious instruction. It seemed that religion teachers had to choose between a conflict with their consciences or with the new regulations. As a result of these restrictions placed upon religious instruction held in the churches, the number of pupils taking part in religious instruction in the schools again rose. Since the situation thus began to turn into a serious conflict, the politicians pushing for the implementation of the new measures gradually lost their support in the government committee responsible for carrying them out and representatives of the more pragmatic wing promised further solutions to the problem (which have yet to appear) after certain misunderstandings had been cleared up. These events both give an outside observer a good picture of the almost impenetrable inner workings of official church politics, and show the extent to which the agency in charge of church politics makes use of religious instruction in the churches, which is of utmost importance for the life of the Church, to help serve existing political views totally unconnected with the life of the Church. Another case in which the Church's point of view was not taken into consideration, a case concerned more with Hungary's foreign relations, had to do with Primate Lekai's attendance at the Fourty-First International Eucharistic Congress held in Philadelphia from August 1-8, 1976. In connection with both this event and the celebrations commemorating the 200th anniversary of the United States, various
