“Religious life was not the only thing dictatorships wanted to destroy, they also persecuted monks who undertook public duties and managed orphanages, hospitals, schools and the distribution of aid in the interests of hundreds of thousands of people in need”, the Ministry of Human Capacities’ Minister of State for Churches, Minorities and Social Affairs said on Wednesday in Mátraverebély-Szentkút.
At the official opening of a conference entitled “The History, Activities and Manifestations of the State Office for Church Affairs” held at Nógrád County’s National Place of Worship, Milkós Soltész said that this era had not been completely closed and the effects of the system that served the state and the communist dictatorship between 1951 and 1989 still existed in the thinking of left-wing political parties.
“The scorn and anti-Christian sentiment that was represented by the communist regime, and which the State Office for Church Affairs was part of, still appears in Parliament and in the media”, he said.
“Neither the Hungarian or Western liberal world are taking account of the persecution of Christians that has occurred and is still ongoing in the Middle East; the historical antecedents include disdain, betrayal and indifference”, the Minister of Sate added.
Mr. Soltész also spoke about the fact that during the French Revolution, which began in 1789 with its motto of liberty, equality and fraternity, 200-300 thousand French people were executed, including some ten thousand clergymen and tens of thousands of devout Christian’s. “2500 monks were arrested during the communist era in Hungary, and the methods applied were also similar: during the French Revolution clergymen were forced to swear allegiance to the Republic, and this train of thought continued in Hungary in the 1950s”, he said.
“We are not tasked with interfering in Church affairs, but it is our duty to take a stand against the persecution of Christians and to protect the two-thousand-year-old culture of Christianity and its two-thousand-year-old faith”, Mr. Soltész stressed, adding that conferences of this kind confirm that despite difficult periods Christianity is always capable of gaining new strength.
Director of the Mátraverebély-Szentkút National Place of Worship Peregrin Kálmán told reporters that the conference being held on Wednesday and Thursday was part of a series in which students, teachers, and on this occasion researchers were being invited to Szentkút to summarise the information that has come to light.
In his lecture, historian Viktor Attila Soós summarised the history and organisations of the Office for Church Affairs, explaining that the agency was set up by Parliament in 1951 “to manage affairs between the state and religious congregations, implement treaties and agreements, and provide state support to religious communities”. The Office was a subsidiary of the Ministry of Interior, especially until 1956, and 30-40 of the agency’s leaders were transferred there from the Ministry. It was supervised by the Council of Ministers, and by György Aczél, István Sarlós and later Judit Csehák (all of whom continued to be involved in Hungarian politics following the regime change in 1989).
“The main task of the Office for Church Affairs, which closed in 1989 without leaving a legal successor, was to control the Churches. The tasks of Bishops’ delegates included reading all incoming and outgoing mail and recording Diocese events, and it was they who reviewed form letters and reported on christenings, weddings and funerals”, the historian explained.