Solidarity with their confrere, Jesuit Father László Vértesaljai, who was beaten up by the police during the demonstrations in Budapest on 23 October, was expressed by the Hungarian province of the Society of Jesus, in a statement dated 27 October and signed by Father Jànos Lukacs, provincial superior of the Jesuits. Our confrere, says the statement, “participated in the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising in 1956” and was (together with others) “beaten with truncheons by the police” and attacked with tear gas. A group of intellectuals, artists and other figures in public life also sent a letter of protest to the Hungarian Catholic press agency Magyar Kurir, in which they condemn police attacks on defenceless people: “According to what is attested by the victim and by many eyewitnesses, masked policemen beat up the Jesuit Father László Vértesaljai on the street in the historic town centre of Pest in the Hungarian capital on 23 October 2006. What the security forces did to him and to others can neither be explained nor justified: it will remain a sad memory in the history of our country”.
