Hungary as a ‘bridge’ country
In presenting the trip, Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See press office, pointed out how Hungary is a “bridge” country. Erdő noted that “being a bridge has always been our vocation. The Danube that runs through the city of Budapest was the border of the Roman Empire, the border of the Empire of Charlemagne; it was the northernmost province of the Ottoman Empire. Hungary has understood itself as part of the Western world for a thousand years and entered it through the Holy See with our king, St. Stephen. For this reason, our relations with the pontificate and the pope also have a symbolic value for the nation, not just for Catholics.”
Indeed, the religious composition in Hungary is varied, although, in the Catholic Church, the Latin rite makes up the majority. However, 5% of the country’s Catholics are of the Byzantine rite, 15% to 17% of Christians are Calvinists, 3% are Lutherans, and there is a large Jewish community. In Budapest, there are also several ancient Orthodox Churches and pre-Chalcedonian Churches. The city is the seat of a bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church, and there are also Armenian Apostolics. Budapest is also the territory of at least five Orthodox patriarchates: Constantinople, Moscow, Bucharest, Belgrade, and Sofia.
“Our task at the ecumenical level is not to haggle over dogmatic principles but rather the search for common positions and everyday actions at a social and moral level,” Erdő emphasized. “There are issues that meet with remarkable consensus. These themes are the dignity of human life, appreciation for the family, social justice, defense of the weakest, and I would also say the relationship between religion and public life, the autonomy or independence of the sovereignty of the Church: Here, too, there are points of compliance or consensus.”
The impact of Catholic culture
In this trip’s itinerary, Pope Francis included a meeting at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University on April 30. It will be the last meeting of the trip and is important because, according to Erdő, “one of the greatest challenges of the Catholic Church in Hungary is the youth. In recent decades we have seen the restitution of quite a few schools that were previously Catholic, and then we have been able to take over the management of other schools at the request of most parents. For this reason, between 15% and 17% of the country’s schools are under Catholic management.”
The cardinal added that “the Catholic university was born out of the need to break down the wall between faith and science. It is an artificial wall, but present. In science, religious people were not allowed to enter, which occurred throughout the communist period. Even in our constitution, it was written that the guiding force of society is the Marxist-Leninist Party of the working class. As a result, non-Marxist-Leninists had less access. It was, therefore, necessary to resume the dialogue between faith and culture and faith and science, and for this, it was necessary to create some institution. Just 30 years ago, we founded a Catholic university. It then received the deed of foundation also from the Holy See.”
The pope will also be a guest of the faculty of Information Technology of Bionics at the university. It is, Erdő argued, an important choice because “the Christian faith is a vision of the world, and the vision of the world presupposes an image of the world, of the universe, of the totality of reality in which we live, and the natural sciences can give great help so that Catholic culture is in a living relationship with the general knowledge of humanity. Therefore, the task is great.”
Rebirth of parish halls
With regard to the Catholic culture in Hungary, the cardinal explained that “in Hungary today, one can publicly profess one’s faith; this is clear. Another question is that perhaps there are environments rather characterized by other visions of the world. Still, there are also magazines, radio, and TV programs, and cultural centers that are Catholic or Christian.”
He noted: “In Hungary, we are experiencing the rebirth of parish halls. Under communism, everything except church buildings had been confiscated, and as a result, the faithful had no occasion to meet outside the liturgy. Now there are parish halls and halls of culture in the parishes. There are cultural programs and sometimes a very high attendance.”
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Religion as part of national identity
Speaking of rebirth, about 3,000 churches, Catholic and non-Catholic, have been rebuilt or restored in the last few years.
Erdő explained that this reconstruction was necessary because “66% of the parishes were under patronage after the war. However, patronages were dropped since municipal administrations declared they did not recognize this duty. So neither the Church had the means for maintenance nor did others bear these costs. Maintenance was, therefore, necessary, and the help of the state was important.”
State aid in the reconstruction of churches also occurred in other countries from the other side of the Iron Curtain. Again, the cardinal gave the example of Romania, where “the state has financed many religious constructions.”
“The rebirth after communism,” he added, “also brought with it the commitment to revive the cultural and moral heritage of the various nations; after the collapse of the Marxist system, a moral, cultural vacuum remained, which was a danger to society.”
The impact of secularization