Hungarian Conservative

Sixty years ago, began the most important event in the history of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century, the twenty-third ecumenical council…It will be the task of a generation to continue, in a rational and balanced way, to implement the teaching of Vatican II, which today is under a great deal of tension.

Easter is the most solemn celebration in the Christian world, commemorating the redemptive death on the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In addition to egg-painting and sprinkling water, there are many folk customs and traditions associated with Easter, which you can read below in the collection of Magyar Krónika.

Vilmos Apor is known as the Bishop of the Poor, and as the martyred prelate who was fatally wounded defending the girls and women under his protection from Soviet soldiers on the Good Friday of 1945.

In a time when Hollywood seems to be very concerned with not offending anyone, horror films depicting Catholic imagery along with blood and gore are still common—Immaculate starring Sydney Sweeney, for example, is being released in theatres this week.

The pontiff mentions his experience with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary and the EU bureaucrats in his new autobiography titled Life: My Story Through History, opining that Brussels should ‘respect Hungary’s uniqueness’.

‘Many Christians who hold modernity culpable for the demise of the church and dispersion of the Christian flock join forces with political conservatism, seeing in it their natural political ally and representative, while conservative politicians look upon these groups—and many of their institutional leaders, bishops, evangelists, theologians—as reliable, strong, and loyal supporters.’

‘Fiducia Supplicans, which calls for the blessing of homosexual couples—keeping in mind that nowhere in this document does it call for conversion—the door has been opened to LGTBQ+ protagonists to promote their agenda. This has divided the Church into two Churches, as many, such as the Hungarian and African bishops, have rejected the directive.’

‘This scandal is a self-inflicted catastrophe for Fidesz. The prime minister plainly understands this, and is taking concrete steps to reform. Yet the idea that the political and cultural Left in Hungary is trying to capitalize on this crisis to sell itself to the Hungarian people as the real protectors of children is a farce—and a dangerous one.’

Mrs Ilonka Szedlák is one of the last few people in Hungary who understand and speak the language of bells.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a declaration ahead of Christmas which proclaims that the Catholic Church is now allowing for the informal blessings of ‘couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples’. Despite Cardinal Fernández, head of the Dicastery, insisting that this does not change the Church’s traditional view on marriage, it still resulted in statements indirectly criticizing the declaration by bishops all around the world, including Hungary.

A short Christmas tale about an angel, pine trees, sore muscles, and joy.

The Roman Catholic Church’s charity organization, Caritas Hungary has provided some four million forints in aid to the families affected by a tragic boarding school accident in Székelyudvarhely (Odorheiu Secuisesc) in Transylvania. Caritas has also launched a donation drive to further help the victims of the accident.

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.

József Mindszenty is often commemorated as one of the first victims of the Rákosi regime. However, his 1949 arrest and show trial were not the last stage of his ‘white martyrdom’: he spent one and a half decades as an asylee at the US Embassy in Budapest, only to be exiled from the country for good in 1971.

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.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is without a doubt one of the most prominent theologians of the 20th century, whose intellectual contributions to both science and religion gained recognition and respect from both the clergy and the scientific community. His oeuvre demonstrates that faith and scientific inquiry are in fact not at odds with each other.

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.

To mark the completion of the renovation of the Roman Catholic church, built in 1737, a mass was celebrated by Bishop of Székesfehérvár Antal Spányi. In his remarks at the Tárnok church, State Secretary Miklós Soltész lauded the collaborative effort that made the renovation project possible.

Péter Pázmány, Cardinal Archbishop of Esztergom, was born on this day in 1570. Despite being born into a Protestant family, he became the leading figure in the Counter-Reformation, and had a major impact on the development of the Hungarian language and the establishment of higher education in Hungary.

In his introduction, Hölvényi emphasized that in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic and wars have weakened people’s faith and religiosity. Rebuilding and strengthening faith will take many years of work, but change must always start from within, he noted.

The Habsburg Court regarded Protestantism simply as the ideological expression of the nobility, that is, the ‘spirit of rebellion’. In addition, it was part of the absolutist thinking of the era that only a mono-religious country could be politically united.

The spirit and dedication to God of Cardinal Duka were not broken when in prison as an underground clergyman—he kept conducting masses for his prison mates that he disguised as occasions of a chess club. A couple of years ago, in an interview with Mandiner, he said: ‘My personal experience is, as someone who also suffered imprisonment for the sake of justice, is that the question often arises: “who is really the prisoner?”. It was not clear whether it was us or those who were looking at us from the other side of the bars.’

Throughout Hungarian history, the country was often referred to as Mary’s realm, the Regnum Marianum. On the occasion of the Hungary’s Millennium celebrations in 1896, Pope Leo XIII sent an encyclical letter to the Hungarian nation, granting permission for Hungarian Catholics to celebrate the feast of the patroness Boldogasszony.

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.

The upcoming celebrations on 20 August centre around one of the most magnificent buildings in Budapest: Saint Stephen’s Basilica. That is also where The Holy Dexter, the right hand of Saint Stephen, the first king of the Kingdom of Hungary, is kept.

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 foreign minister called the preservation of communities that stayed together in ‘every storm‘ extremely important at the opening of the renovated Old School in Western Hungarian Hegykő. The project was completed with a 220 million HUF Hungarian government–European Union grant.

While talking to reporters on his flight from Budapest to Vatican City, Pope Francis revealed that the Vatican is engaged in a ‘peace mission’, which he has discussed with Prime Minister Orbán and Bishop Hilarion in Budapest. The Kyiv government has made it clear that it does not approve of such an effort.

Pope Francis is visiting the Hungarian community for the third time in just four years, but his first official trip specifically to Hungary will only take place this weekend.

On the day of the performance, artists will only be able to bring in a small bag with them. This means security checks will be similar to those at airports, so participants and performers will need to arrive hours before the event.