Cardinal Erdő calls on Hungarians to turn to one another with love

(MTI) – Cardinal Peter Erdo, Hungary’s Catholic leader, has called on all Hungarians to approach one another with love.

“If God loved us so much that he assumed solidarity with us through his birth as a homeless child in Bethlehem, then we, people should turn to one another with the same love,” the cardinal said in a pre-Christmas interview to MTI.

Erdo said that the Hungarian Catholic charity had continued to help those in need both in Hungary and abroad this year. In June it got involved in flood control operations and reconstructed hundreds of buildings in flood-hit areas.

The charity relies on 5,000 to 10,000 volunteers and helps 70,000 to 80,000 people nationwide, he said.

Erdo also said that Hungary’s treaty with the Vatican had to be updated because some legal terms on public and higher education included in the treaty have been revoked from Hungarian legislation since and the legal status of the Rome-based Papal Hungarian Institute had to be settled.

The cardinal said that the Catholic Church in Hungary had marked the Year of Faith in 2012-2013 with congresses and pilgrimages as well as the publication of a youth catechism entitled Youcat.

Concerning the introduction of compulsory ethics and religion lessons earlier this year, Erdo said that the proportion of pupils aged 6-10 attending religious education had increased from 30 to 34 percent in 2013.

Photo: MTI – Szilard Koszticsak

Source: http://hungarymatters.hu/