HIS-Press-Service, 1985 (8. évfolyam, 26-28. szám)
1985-02-01 / 28. szám
HIS Press Service No.28, February 1985 Page 4 The Positive Effects of the Agreement As was shown in the course of time, the Partial Agreement opened up more possibilities than had been foreseen when it was signed in 1964. The regular talks which had been agreed on at the time, gradually developed into a real dialogue and, as such, proved to be surprisingly successful. The relations which were enthusiastically nurtured on both sides showed spectacular results, such as the visit made by the First Secretary of the Party to Pope Paul VI in 1977. Keeping the problems continually in awareness is, as State Secretary Imre Miklós, the head of the State Office for Church Affairs, expressed, virtually the seal of quality of the gradual improvement in the relations between Church and State, with regard to the Church's possibilities of pastoral care - which amounts to the same thing. According to Imre Miklós, no aim - at least verbal - should be out of the question in this process of improvement for the Church. As far as the practical results are concerned, however, it must be said that he has, admittedly, brought about a more elegant solution concerning the State's "supervision" of the Church, but, in actual fact, there has been hardly any real relief as far as pastoral care is concerned. The "improvements" are continually being measured up against the situation of persecution in the Fifties, which, so to speak, is taken as the status quo; the tought, that the historical status of the Hungarian Church, as it had evolved in the course of time, could also be taken into account in the comparison, as well as the present actual circumstances, is simply ignored. According to the current rules of the official language use it is thus not allowed to talk of "having regained" this or that freedom, but at best, of a "réintroduction" of a particular church activity, - whereby the prefix "re-" really ought to be omitted. Nevertheless, every possibility of extending her activity in a legal way has become very important for the Catholic Church in Hungary. The development of her relations with other countries led to her involvement in the conciliatory renewal in the pulsating Church at large. - The relaxing of import regulations on books and periodicals of religious content, written in Hungarian and which were printed outside Hungary, at least partially filled the enormous gap in reading material at home in Hungary. - The need for priests, who had continued their studies at foreign universities, was particularly great, both in the initial and in the continuing activity of the theological aggiornamentos today. - The formation of a committee for the edition of new religious books was the beginning of a catechetic movement, which, for its part, - in the interest and for the promotion of religious instruction - led to the establishment of a diocesan committee, as well as a supra-regional institute. As it became evident that there was a growing interest in theology
