Some 800 Hungarian Catholic roma (gipsies) recently took part in a meeting with the title “Prayer in our life” organized by the Office for Migrants of the Hungarian Bishops’ Conference and held at the St. Stephen’s University at Gödöllo, in central Hungary. The meeting was opened with a liturgy officiated by Monsignor Szilárd Keresztes, Greek-Catholic bishop of Hajdúdorog, and Bishop Antal Majnek of Munkács (Munkacevo, Ukraine), who both spoke of the central themes of the meeting, prayer and life. Bishop Keresztes, recalling some personal experiences linked to funerals in gipsy families, stressed that “the atmosphere experienced in them, the tears and lamentation are signs of grief, genuine manifestations of love. For our life is genuine only if we acknowledge that it is destined to die. Rom families know that death is only a shift to another dimension, the continuation of the life of man in life eternal. Even in death do gipsies believe in life!”. Mons. Majnek spoke in turn of prayer as a dialogue in which “the other person is important”: “Love begins when I feel affection for the other person, when I listen to him, accept his words and follow him”. During the meeting, characterized by music and dancing, the children were involved in various craft activities and games.
