“May Hungary build a future free from any oppression and ideological conditioning!”. That’s the hope expressed by Benedict XVI in the message he sent to the President of the Republic of Hungary László Sólyom, on the occasion of the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising (23 October 1956). In his message, Benedict XVI recalls the repeated appeals of Pius XII, who, fifty years ago, “urged the international community to recognise Hungary’s right to self-determination”. According to Mihaly Kranitz, professor of theology at the Catholic University of Budapest, “the enormous sacrifice for freedom and for Europe, made by Hungary fifty years ago, must not be squandered. Our genuine values therefore need to be developed to create real unity between West and East”. “The proclamation of the Republic on 23 October 1989 brought us freedom – recalls Kranitz -. And in 1991 the Soviet troops left Hungarian territory for good”. But the changes of the years 1989-1990, he points out, “have not made us forget the past. The forty years of Communism still make their influence felt right down to our own day, in spite of our multi-party parliamentary system”. As member of the European Union, says Kranitz, “Hungary still has difficulty in finding the right road to follow and finds herself in an uncertain, indeed explosive situation, as demonstrated by recent events. Today our economy is suffering from instability and the government lacks credibility for the country as a whole. Cultural and educational contacts need to be multiplied, otherwise our hopes for the European Union will remain mere pipedreams”. The 50th anniversary of the revolution was also commemorated by the general secretary of the Council of Europe Terry Davis, who declared: “1956 marked the beginning of the end. The uprising was the point of departure of the great desire for liberation and heralded the fall of the Wall…. I have only one word to address to my Hungarian friends and it is ‘thank-you’ from the bottom of my heart”.
