Hungarian Church Press, 1949 (1. évfolyam, 4-13. szám)

1949-07-26 / 9. szám

Ko 9.

2-ion claims another suitable attitude, for that which is light and efficient on one side of the Alpes, is wrong and unefficient on the other.

Already at the outset it became evident that the picture of the situation of the Hungarian Lutheran Church enrooted in our Protestant brothers abroad, was a false one. That accounts for the fact, that the official declarations speaking ox religious freedom we enjoy at home, failed to be duly appreciated. The necessary historical perspective to understand it, is missing.

That is why I considered it as my foremost duty to remind Western Protestantism of counter-reformation in Hungary, when following the historical declaration of archbishop Kolonich, our forefathers were tortured on the rack condemned to the galleys, and exterminated.

This declaration became the governing principle ox the

Habsburg dynasty saying that Hungary must first be thrust-4into poverty and then-be turned to Catholicism. These ‘methods and practices resulted in a Catholic hegemony, heavily weighing upon the Lutheran Church, so that in the past, every manifestation could only trod the narrow path of martyrdom or compromise.

After the liberation of 1945 our Church was truly and wholly liberated from undex- the Catholic thumb, and consequently the only right church policy could only be that which: 1./ took a definite stand against a policy of gravamens, iniciated and carried on by cardinal Mindsaenty. 2./ appreciates not merely the attitude of the

People's Democracy towards the Churches, but also the efforts displayed in the re-building of the country and the x-aise of the general standard of living.

I had to make a clean breast of the fact, that .tjasre were some of our church leaders, who failed to see the necessity of a total opposition to the policy of the Catholic Church. They failed to see, - for they did not want to. I could not conceal the fact that, in the Habsburg monarchy as well as during the Horthy regime, our church leaders were not chosen from among the professing Christians of our Church, neither from among the. lay evangelists, but these offices were rather offered to worldly nobilities. Barone, estate owners, ministere and other worldly dignitarie were elected for our general inspectors, who were not merely supporters of the Horthy regime, but consented to those . continual compromises which rendered the Protestant Horthy Regime so dear to the Catholic nobility and highpriests.Ihus it is obvious that liberation to them did net mean more free dom, but rather injury, the loss of castles, estates and high positions.