The bishops: “no” to syncretism and neo-Paganism In a circular letter issued on Sunday September 20 and read in Churches across the nation, Hungary’s bishops called to safeguard Catholic Church in the Country in reason of the spread of syncretism and “neo-Paganism”. The bishops also voiced their concern over the Country’s increasing secularization, hedonism, occultism and spiritism. “We are witnessing the resurgence of a kind of Paganism – states the document of the Bishops’ Conference -. As after the death of Saint Stephen, Christianity is once again under attack. A few years ago we used to believe that secularization was the only danger. With consumerism the idol of hedonism has gained new vigour in our society along with neo-Paganism”. “During the decades of Communism – the bishops continued – authorities tried to make us shut out all those elements that confirmed our Hungarian and Christian identity. They tried to make us forget all those things that could confirm our Hungarian and Christian identity. They tried to instill in us an inferiority complex and reiterated that Hungary had been the last ally of Germany in the Second World War and that we were nationalistic and chauvinist. And we were recently labeled as intolerant and racist”. “It’s necessary and just to rediscover our true identity – the prelates remarked – bringing to the fore Hungarian values and heritage in the cultural, historical and scientific realm”, and “to reconfirm our Christian identity”, since “Christ’s revelation was incarnated also in Hungarian culture, ennobling and consecrating it. Indeed, our thousand-year long cultural tradition is meaningless without Christian faith”. The bishops point out the risks of this “acknowledgement”, which includes the so-called ‘ancient Hungarian syncretism’ that mixes the contributions of different religions” and “leads faithful to err”. Other dangerous paths include “occultism, spiritism and the various forms of idolatry”. “An attack against our Catholic faith” arrives also “from the proponents of extremist liberal thought that seek to impose the dictatorship of relativism, a vision of the world that questions the existence of truth and spreads the culture of death instead of promoting the respect of life. It denies or relativizes the difference between man and woman, and between marriage and the family”. Thus, the bishops reaffirm “the plan of God the Creator for man, the family, cultures and for the nation as a whole”. “Before globalization – concludes the document of the Hungarian Bishops’ Conference – we profess Catholicism. True Catholicism is not international but supranational. But in order to exist in practical terms it ought to be incarnated in national cultures”. Budapest: the road of Cardinal Mindszenty A news item issued a few days ago brought back from oblivion a road in Budapest, Andrássy road, the famous Andrássy road, the ill-famed Andrássy road. The news referred to the European Week of mobility and the initiatives scheduled for the occasion in cities across Europe. Andrássy road in Budapest, included in UNESCO’s world heritage sites, was reportedly closed to traffic for three days and transformed into a “living road”, with green grass on the sidewalks, sport tournaments, theatre performances, green vehicle presentations, bicycle races and creative painting for children: an idyllic picture. This was not the case sixty years ago and until 1956, when the bloody revolt in Budapest marked the beginning of the deliverance of the Hungarian population. Andrássy road was ill-famed at the time. The seat of the secret police of the Communist regime was at number 60. This is where Cardinal József Mindszenty was brought on the evening of December 26 1948. His memoirs are telling: “The line of cars stopped in front of the building of Andrássy Road, number 60. I was ordered to get out. Then two tight rows of policemen brought me into the notorious house. Here the Hungarians, who had been educated at Hitler’s Gestapo, had created a terrifying centre for torture and terror already at the time of German occupation. Those who happened to walk there carefully avoided the building or turned their heads when the passed in front of it». The martyrdom of Mindszenty was consumed at number 60 of Andrássy Road. Humiliated in his dignity, subjected to physical and psychological torture, doped until his strong will gave in, the Cardinal was transferred from Andrássy Road after 38 days of hell, on the eve of the farse-trial that sentenced him to life prison. The story of Mindszenty, is debated still today. The heroic Cardinal Primate of Hungary is remembered as the relentless opponent of Communism, one of the central figures of world and Hungarian Communism. Today Andrássy Road 60- the name is taken after Hungarian Prime minister Gyula Andrássy von Csíkszentkirály, the Old (1823-1890), father of Gyula the Young, who also was a political figure – hosts the Terror Museum designed to bear evidence of the two bloody Hungarian dictatorships. Never was a name more appropriate.
