Hungarian Conservative

“For all the trials the Christians have endured—from famine during the Ottoman Empire to British bombardment during World War I and the rule of Hamas—the potential future for our Christian brethren in the Holy Land after the war is eventually over seems bleak.’

During the oppression by the Communists, which specifically targeted Catholic churchmen, such as the Venerable Cardinal József Mindszenty, many priests were coerced to flee the country. Blessed Brenner, however, chose to stay, saying: ‘I’m not afraid. I’m happy to stay.’ He was murdered on 17 December 1957.

‘Before a military operation is even conceivable, Washington and the EU Member States must abandon the so-called “good relations” with Iran. There is nothing good in a “relation” where the other side is going to profit from it, and thereby continue to sponsor terrorists. After all is said and done, then, perhaps we can discuss, or even assume, good relaions.’

‘Washington and the EU need to take an entirely different approach, one that may actually work, and that is facilitate a ceasefire. Convincing Zelensky to consider this does not necessarily mean that Ukraine is to give up on restoring its 1991 borders or on holding Putin’s government responsible for the death and destruction he has caused since invading the country.’

‘There will never be a full-proof manner in individualizing who within a Muslim community is a terrorist. At the same time, doing absolutely nothing, like the elite in Brussels does, only harbours Muslim jihadists on our front porch while they are preparing for the next attack.’

‘The indiscriminate attack on 7 October that killed approximately twelve-hundred innocent Israeli citizens cannot go unpunished. Yet there are rules of war that need to be respected.’

Elizabeth was declared a saint four years after her death. She is often symbolized by a triple crown, which stands for her roles as a member of royalty, as a mother, and as a saint, crowned in heaven. She is the patroness of the Franciscan Third Order and of all Catholic Charities.

It was Pope Gregory III (731-741) who formally instituted the feast of All Saints on 1 November when he consecrated a chapel to all the martyrs in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome; he then required the Feast of All Saints to be observed annually. Surprisingly, this celebration was originally confined to the Diocese of Rome. It was not until Pope Gregory IV (827-844) assumed the Throne of St Peter that the feast was extended to the entire Church on that day.

‘Hamas’ 7 October attacks have nothing to do with the grievances of the average Palestinian. Rather, it is part of their jihad (holy war) that is sponsored by the theocracy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which must be stopped…peace can only come after the Hamas terrorists are eliminated and Iran is properly dealt with.’

‘Instead of ‘making disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; teaching them all that [Jesus Christ commanded]’, (Matthew 28, 19-20) members of the Catholic hierarchy are promoting, at least inadvertently, a culture of relativism and indifferentism—both equally venomous to the moral progress of the human race.’

‘All things being equal, the roots to the actual deadly conflict are profound, as already mentioned. Yet it does not help the cause of peace to keep doing business with Iran, just as the United States has done under the Obama administration and is still doing under the present one.’

‘Christian nationalism is a type of religious nationalism in which the end goal is to achieve an absolute Christian theocracy within a society. Its advocates primarily focus on the internal politics of society, such as legislating civil and criminal laws that reflect their view of Christianity and the role of religion in political and social life, which calls for, at least in their mindset, a strongman like Putin.’

‘Would foetal personhood norms ultimately eliminate abortion? No, of course not…Yet human life would at least be recognized to begin at conception—this is already admitted by those who procure and consume the “morning after pill”.’

‘Indeed, things are getting so difficult for Xi’s authoritarian directives…China’s economy actually fell into deflation in July, while factory-gate prices also extended declines—its debt is three times its GDP in 2022. Beijing’s consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, fell 0.3 per cent in July, the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) said, after having flatlined in June.’

‘The rapport between the governments of the world and Iran cannot be limited to the financial sector; they must address Iran’s brutal crackdowns of its own population, its sponsorship of global terrorism, its setting up a parallel-state within Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, its militia forces in Iraq, which with the assistance of the Badr Organization occupy government posts imposing their sharia-based tenets, and its delivery of weapons to Russia to use against Ukraine.’

‘Liberalism demands we remain open to hearing differences of opinions and the ability to mediate them through democratic institutions. Openness, however, does not equate to acceptance, especially if the opinions are incompatible with the truths of the natural law, as John Locke had forewarned.’

Despite the left-wing’s denunciation of Orbán as a despot because of his censorship, or for that matter that of Abdullah II, the one-sided free speech absolutism that is being promoted by the same left is nothing more than a capitulation to moral nihilism, a reason why Facebook has been removing Hungarian conservatives from its platform.

According to the Annual Persecution Report of ChinaAid, a non-governmental Christian non-profit that focuses on human rights abuses and religious freedom in China, government pressure on Christian churches and faithful to yield to political ideology has only increased since the signing of the 2018 agreement between the Holy See and Beijing.

In 2015, Cardinal Erdő was chosen to give the opening remarks at the Synod on the Family in Vatican City. The Cardinal, to the disappointment of progressive churchmen, reaffirmed the importance of the divine doctrine and reality of indissolubility in marriage.

It is quite clear that the Ukrainians would have never survived this long against the Russian aggression without the financial and military assistance of the US. Yet the Biden administration has thus far offered no strategic argument on behalf of the costs and risks, let alone what is the overall end objective of the war.

‘Could Biden’s token [of shaking hands only with Orbán when arriving for the NATO group photo in Vilnius], as some experts suspect, have been an invitation to the Hungarian government to hop on board the US geopolitical bandwagon and forget the Chinese and Russian ones?’

‘With in vitro fertilisation, conception takes place outside the mother’s body, rendering the natural conjugal act between husband and wife in itself as alien to the institution of the family. Man and woman no longer come together as one, but are rather utilised in the creation of human embryos…This not only harms that unitive act of marriage between husband and wife, but it reduces the child to a mere group of cells.’

Notwithstanding his many political failures, such as the Crusade to Nicopolis in 1396, the involvement of Sigismund of Luxembourg in the short-lived, but nevertheless historical reunification of the Christian Churches cannot be discounted.

‘There is also a way to deal with the world’s largest economy, for the US Dollar (USD) is not going to decline anytime soon. Those who claim that the USD is in decline often argue that for centuries, reserve currencies have risen and fallen in tandem with their home economies. As the US’ share of the global economy diminishes, economists argue, so too will the USD and its global hegemony. A fascinating yet hardly conclusive argument since there has never been a dominant global reserve currency prior to the USD. Quite the contrary, the USD is the only currency ever to have played such a pivotal role in international commerce.’

Given Erdoğan’s pro-Ottoman policies, many were a bit surprised that the first to congratulate him in his victory, even two weeks before the runoff when he was projected as the frontrunner, was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The paradox in this is that both are ardent defenders of their respective faiths that have historically been in conflict with each other.

The US became an imperial power in its own right by the end of the nineteenth century, specifically from 1898 to 1901, when it claimed territory or influence over no fewer than five islands outside its territorial boundaries: Cuba, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines…Under the guise that is was America’s duty to spread the light of civilisation and democracy to the ‘backward’ people of the world, the former British colony took it upon itself to govern the peoples of Latin America and the Pacific—whether they wanted it or not.

I personally believe Putin would have invaded the Ukraine, as he did Crimea in 2014, whether he felt ‘provoked’ or not, especially after he lamented the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 as ‘the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [twentieth] century’. One can conclude that the former KGB colonel, with his reverie to rebuild the former Soviet empire, was looking for an excuse to do so. And the US-led West provided it to him.

In his homily on Pentecost Sunday in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI said that ‘Pentecost is distinguished from all the Solemnities by its importance since what Jesus Himself had announced as the purpose of the whole of his mission on earth is brought about in it. Indeed, on his way up to Jerusalem he had declared to his disciples: ‘I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!’ (Luke 12, 49)

‘The real crisis is neither at the US-Mexican nor at the European borders. Instead, it stems from Central America. Crime, violence, corruption, and economic devastation in the region have propelled people to the border. In terms of Europe, it is the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle East that have propelled their citizens to flee inhumane situations.’

The truth of the matter is that AI is here to stay. It is the future. While we may be some time away before, and if, we are confronted with a ‘HAL’ as the astronauts in Discover One, AI could be apocalyptic if it is under the wrong hands. At the same time, would anyone care to tell us whose are the right hands?