“For some great personalities of Eastern Europe it is impossible to establish with certainty to what nation they belong. The debate has been extended also to the best known exponents of the Church; nonetheless our task is to recall and propagate the idea of the universal, i.e. supranational, Church”, said Kafer Istva¡n, director of the Central Europe Research Centre in Esztergom (Hungary), where an international congress was held in recent days on the great bishops, theologians and martyrs of the region. The Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian and Hungarian experts said they agreed on the fact that “the great men of the Church understood that love for their own country is a gift of God that helps us to vanquish selfishness and to sacrifice ourselves for the community, but even more important is love for Jesus and for his Church”. “In this part of Europe there is a lot of tension between peoples, but also between the various Churches”, continued Istva¡n. “For example, in Ukraine, where the conflict between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches has been continuing for centuries, it is difficult to follow the reconciliation proposed by Vatican Council II. These problems – he explained – can only be resolved through mutual understanding. So our task is the study of history”. The participants in the conference tried to free historiography from propaganda. “Our efforts are being morally supported by Cardinal Péter Erdö, who is personally interested in the question and hitherto was present at each of our conferences”, concluded the director of the Research Centre in Esztergom.
