HIS-Press-Service, 1980 (5. évfolyam, 16-18. szám)
1980-02-01 / 16. szám
HIS Press Service No.16, February 1980 Page 13 COMMENTARY There are still far too many matters in Hungary in the relations between Church and State which were dictated through force, or were contained in a secret protocol as a pro forma transition state. This makes it impossible to describe the present "historically evolved situation" as sound and, above all, just. Even the Church-State agreements came aboutas a result of State pressure. Preventive measures forcefully imposed by the State during the Stalin era as a part of admi ni strati ve encroachments (which were also admitted to by Secretary of State Miklós) - such as the deportation of members of religious orders - preceeded the 1950 agreement and placed the Church in a hopelessly disadvantageous position from the very start, a fact specifically referred to in a pastoral letter of the Bishops Conference at the time the agreement came about. The questions involving religious orders and the members of such orders still remain unsolved today. There is a long way to go before the relations between Church and State can be referred to as "ordered." The Hungarian State insisted in its dealings with the Vatican that in accordance with the partial agreement reached in 1964 matters of personnel should be clarified first, i.e., that the vacant episcopal seats should be filled by such persons as were acceptable both to the Holy See and the Hungarian government. Only after the installation of such Church leaders acceptable to both sides should one proceed to a regulation of pastoral matters. The first demand was met with the appointment of Dr.László Lékai as Archbishop of Esztergom in 1976. The question of pastoral matters is still waiting to be taken up, which is reason to be concerned that by the time such a definitive "ordering" of matters in this area comes about, the most important prerequisite for an up-to-date form of pastoral care will be missing - namely a sufficient number of priests young enough for priestly workj and this because of the rapid aging and decreasing numbers of the Hungarian clergy. The existence of basic problems in the relations between Church and State is symbolized, for example, by the fact that in contrast to the praxis in the area of politics, those persons who were found guilty in Church political trials of the past have still today not been rehabilitated. There are thus still in Hungary, for example, a great number of victims of the regulation stipulating that the years of work put in by these persons before their imprisonment do not count in the computation of retirement benefits. Many of those formerly found guilty are also affected by regulations imposing travel restrictions. Everything having to do with the Church is sti 11 today a part of police files, and the data contained therein can be used at any time as a basis for legal proceedings. It is thus quite difficult to state that the present situation in Church-State relations is the result of "historical development." This situation was in no
