HIS-Press-Service, 1977 (2. évfolyam, 5-8. szám)
1977-12-01 / 8. szám
HIS Press Service No.8. December 1977 Page 9 As already mentioned, the publication of Catholic books, which is one of the most important factors involved in evangelization, is faced with various problems. It is not only the fact that the Catholic publishing houses receive almost no form of state subsidy; they are also allowed to publish only a certain number of books. Not more than 15-20 Catholic books appear annually, and even these are in small editions. At the State publishing houses, on the other hand, 7,730 new publications with a total of 74 million copies appeared in 1975. Of all the copies of books appearing in Hungary, therefore, the percentage of Catholic ones amounts to only about 0,1%. The periodical press publications face a similar situation. Although every county in the country not only has its monthly magazine, but also its daily paper (not to mention the nat^uma^ newspapers which have editions running into the millions), the Catholics have only the following publications: the weekly newspaper "Új Ember" (68,000 copies); the bi-weekly publication of the Movement for Priests of Peace."Katolikus Szó" (11,000 copies); the literary and cultural magazine "Vigil ia" which appears monthly (14,000 copies); and the scholarly periodical "Teológia" which is published quarterly (4,000 copies). In listing the Catholic press publications, mention should also be made of the "Magyar Kurir", which appears in lithograph form and functions as a daily source of information, especially for the priests. As a symbolic improvement of the situation, the government has recently held out the prospect of an increase in the number of Catholic press publications. The two most important mass media of our time, radio and television, have remained closed to the work of evangelization. The only exception to this is the "Religious Half Hour," which is aired on Station 2 (Petó'fi Broadcasting Station) of the Hungarian Radio on Sunday morning from 7:00 o'clock to 7:30. This program is alternately put on by the various religious denominations. In figures, this means that of the 23,000 hours of programming which are aired each year by the 3 radio and 2 television stations, a total of only 9 hours is made available to the Catholics for their use. (The Catholic Church in Austria, in comparison, has more than 400 hours yearly in radio and television at its disposal). According to surveys made by Hungarian Radio, approximately 150,000 persons listen to these religious programs. This means that even this minimal amount of air time constitutes a valuable avenue for evangelization. Who Fulfills the Tasks of Religious Education and Evangelization Today? In a statement made at the Bishops Synod in fall, Primate László Lékai said that "in Hungary, religious instruction is carried out almost exclusively by priests: pastors, assistants, and clerical religion teachers." Approximately, 3,300 priests are actively involved in pastoral activity, although only about 2,000 of them have
