Magyar Egyház, 1976 (55. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1976-04-01 / 4. szám
8 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ Our Church Resolution in the Congressional Record DISCRIMINATION AGAINST HUNGARIANS IN ROMANIA The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Patten) is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. PATTEN. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to join my distinguished colleague from New Jersey (Mr. Helstoski) in discussing the continual abridgment of the human and civil rights of the 2.5 million Hungarian minority in Romania. On my part, I would like to deal not with the domestic aspects of the discrimination that led to the appeal of the National Councils of Hungarian and German Workers to the Government requesting action, but with the activities of my good friend, BISHOP ZOLTÁN BEKY, D.D., National President of the American Hungarian Federation, in defense of the human and religious rights of these people at the recent Fifth World Congress of the World Council of Churches at Nairobi, Kenya. In the summer of 1975 I already reported the unanimous resolution of the Bishop’s Council and General Assembly of the American Hungarian Reformed Church, a resolution to which later on tthe Calvin Synod of the United Church of Christ also acceded, about the ongoing oppression of Hungarian Protestants in Transylvania in particular, and the Hungarian national minority in general. My distinguished colleague from New Jersey (Mr. Helstoski) also reported on Bishop Beky’s trip to Geneva on July 30, 1975 where he had submitted in person the resolution of the American Hungarian Reformed Church and the Memorandum of the American Hungarian Federation to the Secretary General of the World Council of Churches and to the Human Rights Commission. At that time he was promised that the matter would be put on the agenda of the appropriate committee at the coming World Congress of the World Council of Churches. Bishop Beky represented his denomination which is one of the 271 member denominations of the World Council of Churches at the Nairobi World Congress between November 20 and December 11, 1975, in Nairobi, Kenya. He sent the material on the ongoing suppression of religious freedom in Rumania, particularly for the Protestant and Catholic communities—Romanians, except for the national minorities are Greek Orthodox—to the key members of the Executive Committee and his action resulted in immediate Romanian reaction. Obviously at the request of the Communist Government, the Bishop of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Oradea (Nagyvárad), Rt. Rev. László Papp submitted an “article” to the members of the committee entitled “Foreign Policy—Domestic Policy” which praised the Law on National Cultural Treasures which, in reality, was confiscating or making inaccessible the written traces of the 1000 years of Hungarian past of Transylvania. Bishop Beky had replied to the “article” in an in-depth analysis of the law, pointing out its shortcomings which were not covered by Bishop Papp and also the arbitrary and discriminatory implementation of the law in practice which damaged the Hungarian Protestant church archives, baptismal records, libraries, and even chalices over 30 years old. The analysis was then presented to the members of the committee by Bishop Beky. Bishop Beky joined the Lithuanian Lutheran Archbishop in Sweden, Konrad Veen in a major committee and parliamentary fight for a resolution which had recognized the oppression of the churches in the Soviet Union, Lithuania and Romania. He received strong support from several of the American and Scottish clergymen and their Western European counterparts. The end result was, as we know by the reports of the media, a resolution which was first passed by the overwhelming majority of the delegates denouncing the suppression of human and church rights in the above countries, but because of the threats of the Russian delegation to walk out, was later rescinded on a technicality. A new resolution had been adopted which denounces the evils without mentioning the names of the countries and only asks the signatories to the Helsinki Declaration to respect articles 7 and 8 of the Declaration relating to the above matters. Yet this was the first instance that the World Council of Churches, not known for its foursquare attitude in case of Communist abridgement of human and civil rights of the churches, has taken up the cause of the churches in Communist states. In the committee, long discussions preceded the resolution, some of it focusing on the Romanian issue. Bishop Beky eloquently elaborated the manifold suppression and discrimination which the Hungarian and German Protestant churches experience in Rumania and his words had great impact on the members. Bishop Beky also met with President Kenyatta of Kenya who remembered the Hungarians, as we do, as “the people of Kossuth, of the great liberator.” Bishop Beky thus succeeded in having the question of the Hungarian minority being discussed at an international forum representing over 400 million Christians in the world and won a great moral victory when Romania was mentioned in the original resolution. However, even after the modification, the question of oppression of religious rights was transferred to the Secretary General to be investigated and he is required to report back within the next 12 months to the executive committee. Thus, a new leverage exists for further informing the Secretary General on the true situation of the church in Romania and we are sure that Bishop Beky, the American Hungarian Reformed Church and the American Hungarian Federation will try to utilize it in favor of the oppressed Hungarians in Rumania who now themselves are voicing their discontent. At this point I want to congratulate Bishop Beky for a job well done and greet him as a staunch and tireless defender of human rights. I also insert into the Record Bishop Beky's analysis of the Law on National Cultural Treasures: (To be continued in next issue)
