HIS-Press-Service, 1981 (6. évfolyam, 19-21. szám)

1981-07-01 / 20. szám

HIS Press Service No.20, July 1981

Page 3

Catholic Retirement Homes for Church Persons

As already mentioned, all other Catholic rest homes in Hungary are for former members of religious orders, priests, and their dependents. The establishment of such homes became inevitable after the disbandment of the religious orders.

On 9 August 1950, directly before the conclusion of the initial Church-State agreement, a social sub-committee of the Equalitiy Commission was established. The commission itself was set up as a forum for examining and solving problems which arose as a result of the agreement. This Equality Commission was comprised of three bishops and three government ministers. The social sub-committee consisted of three State secretaries (József Veres, State secretary of the Department of the Interior, Lajos Simon, and Sándor Csékei) and five Church representatives (Archbishop Czapik; Sándor Sik, the provincial of the Piarists; Gyula Hagyó Kovács, the property administrator of the Cistercians, who was later replaced by Gábor Szörényi S.J.; Vencel Nagy, the chief financial administrator of the Benedictines, who was later replaced by Imre Szlics S.P.; Erna Szabó, an order member of the Szatmar Sisters of Mercy). The State interests represented by the social sub-committee were later entrusted to the State Office for Church Affairs. For the social care of Church persons, the Hungarian Bishops Conference established the social service program for church persons who are either infirm or live in forced retirement.

This service, which is now called the Catholic Social Services Program, is presently overseen by the Bishops Conference in the person of Gyula Szakos, the auxiliary bishop of Székesfehérvár. The Social Services Program was administrated by Gábor Szörényi,S.J. until 1980; he was succeeded by Otto Virányi, a priest from the Archdiocese of Esztergom.

Five places which could care for a total of 605 aged and infirm religious order members were already established in 1950.

The country's first retirement home for members of religious orders for men was opened in Jánoshida. This home, however, soon proved too small, whereupon the residents were transferred to the Benedictine Abbey at Pannonhalma which provided facilities for 100 persons.

In October 1950, 66 retired members of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy were offered retirement quarters in the former Benedictine Abbey in Bakonybêl, and

another retirement home in Gyón (Dabas) provided facilities for 120 Sisters of the

Sacred Cross from Zsámbék and the Poor School Sisters of Szeged (No additional religious women have been accepted at this home since the beginning of this year). Another home in Csäkvär accepted 63 religious women, most of whom were members of

the Poor School Sisters of Kalocsa. In 1950, a retirement home which provided

quarters for 100 religious women was also opened in the former Franciscan monastery