“It’s not a persecution mania on the part of the Church, but an intention to persecute on the part of others”, says András Veres, auxiliary bishop of Eger and secretary of the Hungarian Bishops’ Conference, in commenting on the projected social reform that would like to limit the role of the Churches in the system of the social services. The Hungarian Minister for Youth, Family and Equal Opportunities Kinga Göncz, in a letter to the Hungarian premier Ferenc Gyurcsány made known a week ago reports the Catholic press agency Magyar Kurìr -, has in fact called “the mass assignment of the social institutions to the Churches an undesirable process”. From the same letter it also emerges that the government’s packet of social reforms would limit church foundations and curb those already under ecclesiastical management. The minister also proposes a review of the concordat with the Holy See and the law regarding the financing of the Churches, with the aim of abolishing supplementary subsidies. Bishop Veres has replied by recalling that last year “the Catholic orders and dioceses took over no social institution from the local authorities”. According to Veres, contrary to what is reported by the mass media, “an intention to persecute” on the part of some is in progress. And this does not contribute to the good relations between State and Church”. The Protestant Church in Hungary has supported the protest of the Catholic Church: Pastor Zoltàn Balog accuses the government of conducting a campaign intended to “punish elderly people who choose a retirement home funded by church bodies”.
