Magyar News, 1996. szeptember-1997. augusztus (7. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1997-02-01 / 6. szám
I Stopped on Kings Highway A Spiritual Journey: Rev. László Stephen Galambos, O.F.M. Introduction . When Mr. Joseph Balogh, the Editor of the Magyar News invited me to share the story of my priesdy ordination in New York, to be truthful, I was shocked. Whenever 1 am asked to tell some material that discloses part of my life, I get a bit emharrassed and my face flushes. I asked the Editor, a dear friend, how can I share such matters with the public, since I am somewhat shy. He did not hesitate with his answer: In your shy way! Well I chuckled a bit. But I the thought a little more about it, and saw some legitimacy in his request. To his credit, I realized that I can not claim to be private property any more, because, in a certain sense I am no longer exclusively my own, and people can ask certain questions and they may well be justified in their wish to know, in that certain sense, so, I needed to overcome some of my awkwardness and face some important mile stones in the last stretch of my priestly formation for the service of God and his people. It would be easier, if I did this in some kind of an interview, where the inquiries would be formulated by others, so the direction of the questions would not be determined by my own biases. But then again, this very thing can, on the other hand, be all the more revealing. Well, I see some risks involved, so I ask my friendly reader for The friars at St. Emery ’s parsonage. Brother László in the front. some grace to put up with me, when I approach some areas differently from his or her liking. An innocent dream__ For easy reading I will try to stick to the point and, also, to touch on major themes. The reader, I trust strongly, will recall the events forty years ago, when I was 16 years old. It was the year of 1956. Our people in Hungary delivered perhaps the most important initial concussion to the Communist Soviet Union until then everyone thought both monolithic and invincible. Until then! Now we know otherwise. Credit is not often given to Hungary to have cracked open, have exposed and have mortally wounded the diabolic monster system that never recovered from the Hungarian event. My stoiy is directly related to it. When Eisenhower opted to follow Tito’s counsel and did exercise a detente vis-a-vis our common adversary, the Soviet Union, the latter began to take unencumbered measures to crush the Hungarians’ freedom, secured by the brave youth and workers of our homeland for some 10 days at the end of October of that fateful year. Today we know the tragic turning point. It occurred on November 4th, a Sunday dawn. In less than 10 days after this complete demise our family came to agree with me to leave the country. I was a mere junior in high school majoring in the humanities in my hometown, Szeged. We were to leave on the morning of the 13th of November for Austria. For some time I had already entertained a secret dream of becoming a priest. But during the whole night before that fateful morning of the 13th of November I could not have a minute of sleep. The imminence of the expected freedom, we all in the family had looked forward to, thoroughly engulfed me. Despite of the positive expectation to be free soon, a more important realization took hold of me. This realization pointedly confronted me with a question in the deepest recesses of my maturing conscience: Why am I leaving my own homeland? Somehow freedom became altogether secondary and it did not stand up to this most profound realization of the sanctity of my beloved Country! This was shocking for me to realize and I was not ready to face my own question. I remember how I struggled to come up with an adequate response. A response that would match the awesome unity, I never before sensed, the fact that I was so bound to Hungary! There was no rest for me. Sleep was out of the question. That itself would have been an escape! Finally, I discovered my answer and found peace. I was pleased with my answer, although it brought me no sleep during that fateful night of decision. The solution came from the pit of my conscience, one that I found thoroughly transparent and sincere. The reason for my going West was that in the free West I would be able to become a priest. Then I saw for the first time that I made a concrete step toward my long term purpose in my earthly life. I saw our leaving as an act that advanced me toward my goal of becoming a priest, to be able to preach Jesus Christ to the world! I was always an idealist. A “human” turn I learned about the American affluence or the American Dream as it is seen by Americans here at the time that proved to be overwhelming for me. Five years later in 1961 I did enter the seminary, but the American dream of material success, coupled with the upcoming excitement of the popular misinterpretation of the Vatican Council II, lead me off my true path. The reader may recall or may note that America witnessed an un-spiritual revolution, what history books may call the revolution of the 60s! For me it nearly ended with a total disaster. According to a false spirit or distorted view of the true teachings of the Council, as it was referred to, “pop theologians,” priests, were talking about getting married. Tens of thousands of nuns left the convents. Many, if not most, people misinterpreted the purpose of the famous Vatican Council II. It was also the time, when the Beatles stirred up a different view of the world. Indeed the world has turned upside down. I did not notice at the time, but later realized how confused those 60s were. As a consequence I, too, left the seminar and became a very successful and popular clinical counselor. I reached the peak of “my American dream,” material success, and all the while I considered myself a “good Catholic,” at least I thought so. I convinced myself. But not for long. It soon dawned on me that, ever so briefly, I lost an honest relationship with God, when I had thought that I had everything anybody wanted. A true journey In 1974 the Lord took me to task and allowed me to see in his gentle but Page 4
