Magyar Hírek, 1983 (36. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1983-08-20 / 16-17. szám
Interview with Cardinal László Lékai CONSTITUTION DAY reconstructed churches is over three hundred. Those that are historic monuments are regarded as national assets by the State, which subsidizes their renovation with considerable funds. I could continue to enumerate the minor or major achievements. Our Retreat House under construction at Leányfalu is likewise the result of a sound relationship between Church and State. That institution soon to be inaugurated will be provided by Jesuit fathers trained in Rome. Great interest is shown also in the recently built Catholic Old People’s Home where 120 beds are available at present, but the applicants are many times more than can be accommodated. The Hungarian Catholic Church maintains extensive international relations. In Rome as well we have ordained Hungarian priests who pursue special studies at the papal universities and who, when they will have come home, will be seminary principals or episcopal assistants. We regularly invite distinguished professors of the Gregorian University in Rome to give lectures on canon law and dogmatics, on how the ecclesiastical issues of importance are explained in Rome. This means that, in contrast with many allegations to the contrary, the living Church is busy working in Hungary for the good of the faithful.” As you mentioned, the quality of religious life has changed. This has been conditional on the implementation of reforms. “Sticking to the pollarded tree metaphor, we have to know that after pollarding long time passes before new sprouting. In the case of our Church, too, this unfolding took several years, and sometimes even decades. The full greening, the strengthening of new branches, points back to the negotiations and trials of long years. As the new society we live in is without precedent, so it has no traditions of the relationships between Church and State either. We profess that the policy of small steps serves the purjrose. We have to size up realities sensibly and soberly to ascertain how many steps can be taken at a given moment and how many at the next. This is the model of Hungarian church policy, and this establishes our sound relations with the State. Of course, this implies also certain difficulties, which we have never denied, nor have we wished to exaggerate the problems. What is important to us is the attainment of the aim, and not what negotiations we have had to carry out and what difficulties we have had to surmount before achieving our aim. A favourable prerequisite for the sober implementation of reforms is harmonious coexistence and cooperation between Church and State in the sphere of welfare. This is beneficial to all citizens, the faithful and others alike. We can find analogies in the teachings of St Stephen, as he transmits to his son, the future St. Emeric, his admonitions in respect of foreign nationals: ‘Assist the new-comers good-will and cherish them, in order that they should prefer to stay with you rather than live elsewhere!’ This we can accept also as a precept for the coexistence of the faithful and others today. This principle, religious belief and religious freedom, fully prevails in practice at the highest level. Difficulties are still encountered at the middle and lower levels, in the counties and villages. We do not deny the existence of such wild growths, nor do we exaggerate them, but we do our best to cut them off, stubbornly and patiently, for the benefit of the community. We can regard as wild growth certain of basic communities which refuse to accept the guidance of the hierarchy and do not submit themselves to the bench of bishops, but go their individual way against the teachings of the Church. They think they are guided by the Holy Spirit which never guides the hierarchy. These are wild growth which are not parts of the root and the wood of the Church but which have somehow taken a different course in their growth underground. We try Í0 cut them back delicately in order to ensure that they make efforts to follow the direction in which the tree grows, because they then serve, and only then can they serve, the advantage of the Church. We expect them not to act against the unity of the Hungarian Church. The need for the unity of the local Church was emphasized also by Pope John Paul II in a letter he sent me through Cardinal Casaroli.” On the occasion of St Stephen’s Day, what message does the Catlwlic Church convey to the Hungarians living beyond the frontiers? “I should repeat the idea which I mentioned when speaking of the mission of the Chapel of Our Lady of Hungary in Rome when it was dedicated: ‘Since St Stephen, upon the loss of his son Emeric, committed his country and his Crown to the care of Our Lady of Hungary, the Blessed Virgin has affectionately made all Hungarians join hands, whether they live in Hungary or outside the country, so that we all should help and hold high one another as brothers.’ This is what I ask of the Hungarians living abroad, and this is what I can promise on behalf of the Hungarians at home.” SÁNDOR LINTNER Has the 20th of August this year an element that differs from the usual which deserves special attention ? Indeed, it has. But the most important message of this feast day has been unchanged since 1949: this is the day we celebrate the first written constitution of the Hungarian People’s Republic, the first constitution in Hungarian history, which made the rights and obligations, welfare and bearing one’s proper share of the burdens more universal, than ever before on the basis of equality before the law. On this day we also remember the foundation of the state and of the founder of the state, Saint Stephen the King. And we celebrate those who produced our new bread. The 20th of August is a notable day of national unity based on Patriotic People’s Front policy. In this finds expression the cooperation of the allied working classes, sections, social groups, of people of differing parentage and ideology of communities with differing interests. Returning to the question posed above: is there a new motive on this year’s feast day, that enriches the unchanged essence? There is. A number of new measures and anniversaries add to the importance of this years feast day. The most important of these is linked with the constitution. We have never professed in the course of the past quarter of a century that our political institutions have reached their final and perfect form. What we did say was that we established the most comprehensive national unity in Hungarian history thanks to the systematic application of a humanist policy on the basis of the most progressive social structure of the age, in which the motive force of progress was the general consensus. We said that the people of Hungary found its modern identity in socialism, and achieved the consummation of its creative forces in this society. But we did not say, nor would we be justified to say even now that the circumstances in which we live are an ideal state. On the contrary, we revealed our pressing contradictions, and anxieties without any attempt to whitewash anything. This attitude guided us during the seventies, when we amended the Constitution, leaving the basic principles unchanged. And this is also the reason why we are making arrangements in order to further develop our electoral system, to make government for the people more and more government by the people at the national as well as the local government level. Our target is to change the benevolent consent we have been granted into an active consensus. This will increase the responsibility of the whoit> nf society for public affaire, and the energies serving the whole progress of the country will become stronger still in the people. An organically developing, ever more democratic society lives behind the ramparts built of socialism, humanism, anti law. What it demands is work, culture, and an honest life based on sound morals. For this political institutions are indispensable which provide a stable and reliable defence of the attainments of social and cultural progress, while offering scope for inevitable changes and the desire of the people to govern itself. When we therefore contemplate the new features of this year’s celebrations of the Constitution we think first of all of further democratization, of the fact that this feast coincides with the preparation of the new electoral laws which will help the policy of the Patriotic People’s Front come true. The other very important motive is that this year will be the nine hundredth anniversary of the annoncement of the canonization of our state founding, great king on August 20th 1083, during the Royal Assizes at Székesfehérvár. We have ever faithfully remembered Saint Stephen in terms of millennial national continuity and statehood, for we know that respecting present day values and the creation of new values could only be based on the most valuable traditions of our country. What took place ninehundred years ago was a particularly significant turning point in the relations between Hungarians and Europe. Though the decisive step after the conquest and the almost a century long period of settlement was the embracing of Christianity, and the establishment of the state, Europe accepted these facts only later, when King Stephen and soon after—in the autumn of the same year—his son, Prince Imre were canonized. The canonization of King Stephen and Prince Imre has, first of all, liturgical significance in the eyes of Roman Catholics. But it is also a historic event of great significance for those of other religions, or of none. Since then Hungarian history has moved between victories and failures, hope and despair. During the restless decades of the 20th century, when the nation tried to find the way that led to the future, the question was repeatedly posed this way: should we be Hungarians or Europeans? Those who formulated things this way were not overfamiliar with Hungarian history. Otherwise they would have known that our forebears already made their decision, and answered that they would be Hungarians and Europeans. This was the answer of Saint Stephen, Coloman Beauolerc, King Matthias. But our writers, artists, philosophers gave the same answer centuries later, men like Endre Ady, Attila József, György Lukács, Gyula Illyés, Tibor Déry, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály. This is how the connection between past and present was established in the great sweep of our history, while this land accepted everybody without regard to origin, proving that to be Hungarian is less a matter of origin, than of decision. Real feast days prompt all sensitive people to pause for a moment, and think about themselves. This is natural not only for the individual, but also for a community. On the Day of the Constitution we meditate first of all on the fact that the alliance and cooperation of the working classes, the mutual understanding between thosewho hold to a religious faith and those who do not, the free career opportunities of the national minorities were anchored in the foundations of our regime. The course of the past quarter of a century and economic and social successes established the basis of mutual trust, of a national and social unity based on the policies of the Piiriotic People’s Front. But it is not enough to rcn'." merely to the course we completed and what nöC been achieved to keep alive trust, be that evei so deep. The people must have confidence that t!16 ship of the country will be well streered in the new situation, particularly as the weather is expected to become even more stbrmy for a good while. The greatest desire of the Hungarian people is the systematic continuation of the present policies but they also demand that the expressed pr inciples and reality, the experience of people and the declared ideals should move ever closer to oneanother. The enlargement of the scope of action, the growth of the efficiency of the political institutional system, the improvement of the moral conditions, and the assertion of demands based on a reliable system of values will establish the conditions of future progress. IMRE POZSGAY 53
