As part of the national year of prayer for reconciliation, called by the Hungarian Bishops’ Conference (HBC), the Slovak and Hungarian bishops concelebrated a liturgy of reconciliation in the basilica of Esztergom on 29 June, with a homily given by Archbishop Frantiek Tondra, President of the Slovak Bishops’ Conference. Two brotherly letters on reconciliation signed by the respective Presidents of the two bishops’ conferences were read out after the Gospel. Benedict XVI also issued a message to mark the occasion, expressing the hope that the meeting “would prompt a renewed commitment to the promotion of Christian values for the good of both communities”. In his letter Cardinal Peter Erdo, President of the HBC, recalls “the history stretching over more than a thousand years” that links the two peoples. Its positive results include “the diffusion and consolidation of the faith, the foundation of a civilization through Christianity”, and “blessings and successes also in the field of the sciences, art, and Christian culture as a whole”. “At the same time, however, – the Hungarian primate continues – this history was often also a history of shared sufferings and struggles”, of “controversies and wrongs that have left scars on people’s souls”. The Hungarian bishops ask for “God’s mercy and forgiveness for all the actions committed in this region against any person due to his ethnic, national, cultural or linguistic origin. We recall with particular sorrow the cases in which Hungarians have caused injuries to Slovak individuals and communities. At the same time we renew our feelings of respect and reconciliation, and the indulgent love that our people too must feel for the wrongs, personal and collective, suffered in certain periods of the past. We forgive and ask for forgiveness”. The Slovak bishops reciprocated these sentiments: “We welcome the public expression of these historical truths, expressing our gratitude to God and asking for mutual understanding and reconciliation. We therefore forgive and ask for forgiveness”. “The Catholics of the two neighbouring countries acknowledge they are united in Christ. We are one Church. “Everything that could divide us must give way to this unity”, stressed Monsignor Frantiek Tondra. “We wish to forget everything negative in our past relations. Everything, on the other hand, that has been positive in our history we wish to exploit in the field of spiritual life and culture, in order to mutually enrich each other. Let us therefore help one another”.
