Hungarian Conservative

‘On 10 March this year, the author of these lines has only one wish: that a miracle may happen in the modern, so-called democratic Romania, and it may become like it was in the 1950s, or even like in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, in the 13th and 16th centuries. Because, if that happened, it would give freedom and autonomy to Szeklerland as in a true 21st-century European—and a European Union—country…’

At the conclusion of his visit to Washington, D.C., Tristan Azbej, the state secretary responsible for the assistance programmes to aid persecuted Christians, noted that the Hungarian government shares practically identical values with the American right, conservative individuals, and organizations. He identified the importance of renewing the fight against anti-Semitism, something Hungarian and American conservatives also agree about, in response to the resurgence of violent anti-Semitism in the Western world, including the United States, following the events in Gaza.

According to Tristan Azbej, the state secretary in charge of programmes aiding persecuted Christians, the fact that the Hungarian Embassy was the host of the opening of the major international conference is not only an opportunity but also recognition of the work carried out by the Hungarian government and Hungary in this field.

Although Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen was acquitted by a court of second instance, the legal battle, unfortunately, may not be fully won. As Räsänen wrote in a press release, she hopes ‘the prosecutor will be satisfied with the decision, but if not, I am ready to defend freedom of expression and religion also before the Supreme Court of Finland, and if necessary, even before the European Court of Human Rights.’  It soon turned out that the prosecutor is considering turning to the Supreme Court.

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.’

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.

Marcela Szymanski of the charity Aid to the Church in Need also welcomed the announcement. ‘It is absolutely extraordinary that six years after Hungary created a department in charge of persecuted Christians, another country finally joins them in acknowledging this reality. Not one single other nation with a Christian majority has dared to do so.’

Answering the call of the representatives of Orthodox communities, Hungary recognised that the Russian Orthodox Church has some 100 million members worldwide, and the sanctioning of its leader would isolate religious people from their spiritual leader. The Patriarch is regularly prayed for and commemorated during church services in Hungary, too, as it is home to a Hungarian Orthodox community under the Moscow Patriarchate.

‘The right to free worship, a bulwark of Hungarian society, is due to the religious freedom conferred by the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (1741-1790).’

The issue is not the expression of religious beliefs by Islamists, rather the socio-political predicaments that come along with it.