Magyar Egyház, 1989 (63. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1989-05-01 / 3. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 9. oldal We’d like to give an example further on, too, by taking care of the refugees with financial and spiritual means and, for this purpose, we’d like to get some more assistance from abroad as well. Tivadar Pánczél, Minister 150,000 DOLLARS SENT BY THE AMERICAN RED CROSS FOR HUNGARIAN REFUGEES FROM TRANSYLVANIA The American Red Cross, Washington, DC, sent $150,000 as a relief to the Transylvanian refugees crossing the Hun­­garian-Romanian border due to the increased oppression and atrocities of the Ceausescu government. The appeal to help the refugees came from Dr. Károly Tóth, bishop of the Danubian Church District of the Re­formed Church and from Dr. József Szendi, Roman Catholic Bishop of Veszprém. Their request was submitted to the American Red Cross by Dr. George J. Halasi-Kun, Professor at Columbia University in New York and by Dr. Andrew T. Udvardy, President of the Michael de Kováts Historical Society, Trenton, New Jersey. Further fund raising is planned to be conducted nation­wide in the Fall of 1989. MORE PROTESTS AGAINST ROMANIAN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS Six former officials of the Romanian Communist Party earlier this year have sent a letter to President Nicolae Ceau­sescu attacking his hard-line policies. Among the signers was a former ambassador to the United States and delegate to the U.N., a former Foreign Minister, two former Polit­buro members, a co-founder of the Romanian Communist Party. The letter accused Ceausescu of violating human rights agreements signed by Romania, of ignoring the constitutional rights of citizens and for failing to observe the 1975 Helsinki accords. The letter particularly took issue with Ceausescu’s scheme to raze 8,000 villages herding the people into con­crete ‘agro-industrial centers’ with the [unpublished] goal of forcibly assimilating several millions of minority popula­tion. + The French government learned about “police measures” against the six former politicians. Reports from Paris say that there is a chance that France will recall its ambassador to Romania. + Solidarity with fellow-Christians in Romania, who have been the victims of government measures, has been ex­pressed in the Netherlands. Both Moderatures of the two main churches of the Reformation in the Netherlands con­veyed directly to the Romanian authorities their concern at such measures as the restrictions placed on the training of ministers, bad living conditions, and the destruction of thou­sands of villages to make way for an agro-industrial com­plex. Foreign affairs minister Van den Broek said he would use all means at his disposal both through direct channels as well as in the framework of the Common Market to bring about a change in the Romanian situation. (From the ‘Netherlands Reformed Church Bulletin.’) + Most significant among the protests can be called the recent statement of the Prince of Wales. Prince Charles in his opening address at the ‘Build A Better Britain’ exhibi­tion in Islington took the opportunity to launch an attack on the destruction of national roots in Romania, where vil­lages were being destroyed and replaced with blocks of flats “with the atmosphere of George Orwell’s 1984.” Prince Charles said his great-great-great-grandmother, who was Claudina Countess Rhedey, Queen Mary’s grand­mother, was buried in a Romanian [that is Transylvanian] village and the tomb was threatened with demolition. The Prince was criticized for mixing into politics yet his outburst was generally approved by the public and there were even calls for Ceausescu to be stripped of his Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath and Queen Elizabeth II to return to Ceausescu the Star of the Socialist Republic of Romania. THE FUTURE OF THE HUNGARIAN STATE OFFICE OF CHURCH AFFAIRS Imre Miklós, for 38 years on the staff of this regulatory agency and 18 years as its chairman, retired effective May 1 ”at his own request.” The State Office of Church Affairs was established during the Stalinist era in Hungary to con­trol church life although it was euphemistically called a “bridge between the State and the churches.” Pressure for the dissolution of the State Office has been mounting for the past T8 months. Leading communist reformers and the country’s main opposition groups regard its activity as incompatible with the Hungarian version of perestroika. The Central Committee of the communist party and the Council of Ministers will soon discuss whether to establish a new state apparatus for religious affairs or to dissolve the State Office of Church Affairs without creating a replacement. The ultimate decision rests with the Parlia­ment to take it up next year. Kálmán Kulcsár, the Hungarian Justice Minister indi­cated in an interview that the Hungarian government is now trying to bring an end to anomalies between the constitution and practice in the sphere of Church-State relations. He also said that he and some of his ministerial colleagues believed there was no need for an institution like the State Office of Church Affairs. In his view, the Ministry of Cul­ture and Education would probably be best suited to conduct business with the churches. (This used to be the system in pre-war Hungary where there was a department in the Min­istry of Religion and Public Education for religious affairs.) [Cf. Keston News Service.] ATHEISM NO MORE CONDITION OF COMMUNIST PARTY MEMBERSHIP IN HUNGARY (?) The Hungarian State Secretary and Communist Polit­buro member, Imre Pozsgay, has called on the ruling Hun­garian Socialist Workers’ Party to drop atheism as a re­quisite for membership. He made this statement at a press briefing in London on April 26. He said that if the Party really wishes to renew itself, it must cease to be a party of atheists. He acknowledged that such a fundamental change would have an effect on communist traditionalists as dev­astating as the Central Committee’s reversal of the official view that the events of 1956 were a ‘counter-revolution.’ (It

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