1987. augusztus (98-100. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2

■The Declaration, referring to "the discussions that have taken |j

* piacé up‘ till now" claims that in our country "the purpose of

military service... is definitély to defend our fatherland and to 1

preserve peace". Since the verb ^is in the present tense and it

is very unlikely that the episcopate v/anted to speak only about |

the present moment, we think they-meant the pást or the future or

bothas well. As fór the pást, as the episcopate tnay well know, in |

1956 őre part of the army took side with the revolutionaries and

another part with those who suppressed the revolution, and in 1968

our army marched intő Czechoslovakia to suppress the uprising there.

As fór the future, everybody knows that our country belongs to the Warsaw Pact, and is obligea to help the armies of the other member States. Any state that keeps an army justifies this by saying that it is necessary to preserve peace, i^roweverjthe life of hunanity^ is full of wars that destroy peace. So those "discussions" that contradict the facts of history cannot justify the way our bishops exercise their role as teachers of their congregation. And the Declaration contradicts the facts themselves, too, because, in its concluding words it refers to the "Lamb of God", who, as everybody knows well, made his disciples pút their swords back intő their sheaths, and promised us a peace in v/hidnswords will have po piacé at all.

/'—that

It is no wonder, then, /the spokesman of the govemment received this Declaration with jubilant cries, as it can be read in every daily paper. Those "lambs" of the-Cetholic church, however, who are willing to undertake even imprisonment fór the sake of their Church, turn their questioning glances amxiously toward the Vatican: is it possible that the Hungárián bishops will ,go on with their policy of "small steps" even after Cardinal Lékai’s death? j

We turn fór help to all good-willing people who worry about the fate of mankind, and, more specifically, to all our fellow Christians who obey Jesus’s commands: we . ask them to do their best to coKBince our bishops that they must be faithful to the spirit of the Vatican Council, the Catholic Church and Jesus’s teaching, and "care fór their flock". * r f-co-fr

Beszélő, No. 19 /February/ 1987. ■ -70