Cardinal Erdő calls for community between people in Christmas message

God has taken community with man and “has enabled us to see Jesus Christ in other people”, Cardinal Péter Erdő, the head of the Hungarian Catholic Church, said in an interview to MTI on Tuesday.

The cardinal referred to the family as the primary place for that communion, but also said that

churches should “serve as a place for communities brought together by love”.

“Stepping into a church should mean to the visitor that they are there not as an audience for ‘a show’, but as a member of a community,” Erdő said.

Referring to the mission of his church, the cardinal said that it has traditionally involved helping the poor. The Catholic Church has “a specific asset of unselfish help to others based on the faith”, he said. The burden of bureaucracy weighs on the church’s welfare facilities, Erdő said, adding that such institutions in central and eastern Europe are obliged to meet “sophisticated regulations set up by Western standards” but without the financing provided in Western countries.

“Over-regulation” poses challenges that religious institutions cannot meet “purely on a basis of generous helpfulness”, he said.

The cardinal touched upon the issue of an ageing society, and noted the large number elderly people living alone and without any help. He said that many young people will seek employment in other countries, further increasing that number.

Concerning Hungary’s Roma minority, the cardinal said that while 87 percent of them had held jobs before 1989, that ratio is currently below 50 percent despite “very serious efforts in recent years”.

He added that the government’s public work schemes were “a step in returning to the world of labour”. The cardinal noted that there are elderly, sick, or challenged people, who are unable to work. “We must navigate between two banks”, he said, and argued that while integration through providing jobs was important, those that are unable to work should also be assisted.

Source: mti