Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev praised the Hungarian prime minister on Telegram yesterday. The current deputy president of the Russian Security Council said that Viktor Orbán was brave not to support the planned EU embargo on Russian energy.
As we wrote before, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was put as an enemy of Ukraine on a far-right website, Mirotvorec, crudely nicknamed the “death list”. The website presents the personal information of tens of thousands of individuals, such as their full name, date of birth, address, and passport number.
According to 24.hu, Medvedev highlighted in his Telegram post yesterday that Europe remained silent regarding the initiative on the Russian energy import embargo,
only Orbán was brave.
He refused to accept the energy ban devastating his country, and he also rejected putting Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill of Moscow on the sanctions list. Orbán said yesterday that such a decision would affect the freedom of religion for Hungarian communities, which he said was “sacred and inviolable”.
Medvedev said that the reasonable leaders of the European Union became
tired of running to the abyss with the sterilised European herd, which the American shepherd leads to the slaughterhouse.
We shall see what the shepherd will do and how those ready to sacrifice their lives for the welfare of the shepherd will behave, Medvedev wrote.
“There are intelligent politicians who can think reasonably and strategically,” Vladimir Legoida, the head of the media department of the Russian Church, commented on Orbán’s decision not to support the sanctions on Patriarch Kirill on Telegram.
The European Union’s proposal to phase out imports of Russian crude oil is “unacceptable”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday, adding it was equivalent to
“dropping a nuclear bomb on the Hungarian economy”.
In a regular interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió, the prime minister said that EU Member States had agreed earlier that the bloc should only take steps that take into consideration the different energy mixes of Member States and their sovereign right to decide on them.
However, the president of the European Commission “either willingly or unwillingly attacked this hard-fought European unity,” he added. While countries with seaports can have energy resources delivered to them by ships, landlocked countries are wholly dependent on pipelines, he said. “The pipeline leading to Hungary starts in Russia… that is a given,” he said. Hungary cannot accept proposals ignoring that fact, he said.
Pope Francis has appointed Michael Wallace Banach, the titular archbishop of Memphis, US, as the apostolic nuncio of Hungary, the Hungarian Bishops’ conference said on Tuesday.
Banach was born in Worcester, Mass., in 1962, and ordained as a priest in 1988. He has been working as a diplomat for the Holy See since 1994, and served as an observer at the UN, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and other institutions.
He was appointed titular archbishop of Memphis in 2013.
He has carried out duties as an apostolic nuncio in the Solomon Islands, Senegal, Bissau Guinea, Cape Verde and other countries.
Besides his mother tongue (English), he speaks Italian, French, Polish and Spanish.
Birthdays have gained international acceptance as our ‘special day’ of the year when we receive gifts and flowers and have parties in our honour. Birthdays are seen as some of the major milestones in our lives, while name days get little to no attention. If you have grown up in a culture where the latter was the norm, it may come to you as a surprise that in Hungary, also name days take the cake and are to be enjoyed with joie de vivre surrounded by friends and loved ones. But where does this tradition come from?
According to divany.hu, Hungarians can give virtually any name to their children as long as MTA (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) approves their requests. And boy, they are creative. Hannibal and Ramszesz are currently popular registered names for boys while girls can be lawfully called Pomponia (just to follow the ancient theme), Sanel (which most probably comes from the couture brand, Chanel) or Sáfrány (saffron in English). Those who are not good at remembering important days can get a little help from florists’ websites where they list each name day according to the dates in the calendar.
Where do name days come from?
In many parts of the world, people have never heard of such an unusual tradition as celebrating one’s name day. This custom is closely linked to religion and has been around already since the Middle Ages. Name days were the days when a saint, martyr, or otherwise holy person was commemorated by the Christian Church. For example, on the day of Katalin, 25 November, we remember the dreadful martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in 305 AD.
The legend has it that she was an educated young girl of noble origin, possibly a princess. Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius fell in love with Catherine and intended to take her for his wife. He demanded that she renounce her new faith and ordered 50 philosophers to persuade Catherine to change her mind. But instead of winning her over, Catherine converted them to Christianity whereupon the emperor had the philosophers burned alive. The same thing happened to the 200 soldiers Maxentius sent to her. However, the emperor did not take no for an answer and in the end, he had the young woman beheaded.
On the day of Santa Claus, the 6th of December, we celebrate those who are named Miklós remembering Saint Nicholas, the early Christian bishop of Greek descent
while on the day of Márton we commemorate Saint Martin bishop, also called Martin the Merciful, who lived around the 4th century just like the two previously mentioned saints.
The more traditional names with a religious background appear more than one time in the name day calendar. The reason behind this is that the different churches — Catholic, Calvinistic and Lutheran — designated different days for each saint. Hence, we can celebrate the day of Katalin on four different occasions, the 15th of August, the 8th or 12th of September or the 8th of December. When you have a friend called Péter or László, it can be also tricky to know on which day that person celebrates his name day, as these names appear multiple times in the calendar.
We usually await our own and our friends’ or loved one’s name days with great anticipation. Namedays also provide good opportunities to express our love or admiration towards colleagues or acquaintances that we are not that close to. Those who were not invited to the family gathering can still surprise the celebrated person with a bouquet of flowers or a bottle of wine. Even though it gives a good opportunity to throw a party and let the good times roll, the majority of the nations do not celebrate name days.
In Poland, name days are widely celebrated and have traditionally been given greater importance than birthday celebrations.
However, most people in the Netherlands, France, Croatia, Slovenia, UK and US have probably never heard of this tradition. Interestingly, Germans used to celebrate name days but they do not keep them anymore after WWII. On the other hand, Slovakians, Romanians, Serbians, Bulgarians, Greeks and the Czechs would not miss the occasion to give a toast to their loved ones on their name days.
Gravestones in a Jewish cemetery in Budakeszi, on the outskirts of the capital, were vandalised early Saturday.
The Pest County Police told MTI the vandalism was reported on Saturday morning and an investigation was launched. Information is being collected and all efforts are being made to identify and arrest the perpetrators, the police said.
About half of the already dilapidated headstones in the cemetery were knocked over or smashed, according to press reports.
Minister: government following ‘unusual’ events in Slovakia’s domestic politics
The Hungarian government is following closely the “unusual” events in Slovakia’s domestic politics, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told MTI on Saturday. Szijjártó said that, according to press reports, efforts are being made to put the opposition leader behind bars, which “warrants closer attention than usual”.
Slovakia’s national criminal agency NAKA has launched a procedure against Robert Fico, the former prime minister and current leader of the opposition Social Democrats (Smer-SD), and his former interior minister Robert Kalinak on suspicion of setting up and supporting a criminal group and abuse of office.
Fico said at a press conference on Saturday that the charges were baseless and politically motivated.
An aid shipment by the Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA) including food, hygiene products and generators has reached Bucha in Ukraine, the organisation’s director said on Friday.
László Lehel, speaking from Zaporizhzhia, told public radio that the organisation had been working in Transcarpathia for a long time and their activities were expanded to seven districts of Ukraine after the war. HIA has been supplying aid to 208 refugee shelters in Transcarpathia, opened a office in Lviv and has recently also transported aid to Kiev and surrounding areas, he added.
HIA received a warm welcome in Bucha, Irpin and Borodianka on Thursday, where locals said they were the first organisation to supply foreign aid, Lehel said. Some 24 tonnes of aid has been delivered in Bucha and the charity has expanded its activities to southern areas, including those near Mariupol, he added.
International charities have contacted HIA, expressing willingness to join the organisation’s activities, Lehel said.
The leaders of the Hungarian Reformed and Evangelical Lutheran Churches celebrated Easter on Sunday with worship services highlighting the importance of spreading the news of Christ’s resurrection.
Reformed Church in Hungary
Zoltán Balog, the bishop of the Reformed Church in Hungary, said the story of Easter Morning brought fear and joy together, noting that the women who found the empty tomb of Jesus had felt fear because they knew that what was happening was out of their control. “Because man does not like it when he is not in control of his life and if he does not understand what is happening around him,” Balog added.
“What happens is out of our control, but it happens for us, to us and can happen within us,” Balog said.
On Easter morning man can experience the essence of the fear of God, “the feeling of how small yet how valuable we are”, the bishop said. The joy man feels from the recognition of his insignificance and importance compels him to share his experience of joy with others.
Balog called on members of the congregation to spread the Gospel to as many people as possible because “the more people you share it with the greater the chance that it will reach those who you do not yet love”.
Tamás Fabiny, the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary, called on believers to spread the message of Christ’s resurrection instead of closing themselves off from the world.
Fabiny asked why it was that Jesus’s suffering had shaken so many people, yet after his resurrection, his disciples had gone home “into self-imposed quarantine”.
“They closed themselves off in fear because of the spread of a virus in the land called fear, a virus called worry, a virus called distrust,” Fabiny said.
“Aren’t we often still like this?” he said. “We are still shaken by Good Friday . but it is like we don’t know what to do with Easter.”
“On our way over here we’re still checking our watches, we want to get good seats . but on the way back we no longer have that jubilance about us or that devotion that Jesus would expect of us,” Fabiny said.
He said believers could spread the news of Jesus’s resurrection to others “because they await this good news”.
Fabiny urged believers to be “energetic Peters and Johns instead of tired and stunned apostles”. “But the real destination is not the Empty Tomb, but rather . the empty hearts of people so that we can fill the void with the living, resurrected Jesus,” he said.
Easter is the most important Christian holiday. During this religious holiday, people celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Of course, many Hungarian customs and traditions are also connected to this. Painted eggs, sprinkling, and all kinds of delicious food are all part of a traditional Hungarian Easter.
Church customs
There are many church customs associated with Easter. On Good Friday, you can see the passion play in churches, showing the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. Holy Saturday is the day of the consecration of fire and water. Churches are filled with people all over Hungary on Easter Sunday and Monday. There is a procession after the service.
The Sunday before Easter is Palm Sunday.
Hungarians remember this with catkins. Easter also ends the 40-day fasting period.
Egg painting
The egg is an ancient symbol of fertility. It became a symbol of rebirth and resurrection in Christianity. It is a popular tradition to decorate eggs in different ways as part of the Easter preparations. In the past, people painted the eggs with different natural dyes. Today, a number of artificial colouring aids help egg painters. Some regions in Hungary had different decoration techniques, writes magyarorszagom.hu.
You can decorate eggs with the help of wax, chisel or even onion peel.
According to tradition, boys visit the houses where girls live. During the visit, they sprinkle women with water and cologne, accompanied by poems. The basis of the habit is the cleansing and renewing power of water, writes edenkert.hu. In the countryside, people still use well-water, but in cities, cologne is more popular.
In exchange for sprinkling, the boys get red eggs and chocolate from the girls.
The main protagonist of the Hungarian Easter meal is the Easter ham. Pork thigh is a popular dish in Hungary, whether salted or smoked. It is usually accompanied by radish, eggs, spring onions, and horseradish.
The braided yeast bread is a must for Easter.
Try the unique tastes of Hungarian Easter. You can also find vegan and non-vegan recipes on our site.
Jesus “sacrificing his own life restores peace between the world and its Creator and makes peace an obligation for man”, Cardinal Péter Erdő, the head of the Hungarian Catholic Church, told MTI on Saturday, celebrating Easter.
The Cardinal said Jesus had greeted his disciples with shalom, the ancient Hebrew greeting, and said “again and again we are obliged to meet the challenge in Christ’s salutation”. “We must overcome ourselves, reining in our own passions and wishes,” he added.
Erdő highlighted the work of the Catholic Charity helping Ukrainian refugees in Hungary and called special attention to children among them. He said it was important that their schooling should not be interrupted “or else their chances in life could irreversibly diminish”.
Some 200 teachers in Catholic schools have volunteered to teach Ukrainian children, and several schools in and outside Budapest have now started the classes for children speaking Ukrainian or Russian only,
the cardinal said.
Erdő noted Pope Francis’s recent calls for peace and said “we believe in the strength of prayer… we allow the people we pray for into our hearts.”
The Catholic Church is in an “ecumenical relationship” with both the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox churches; it “has been and will be ready to promote dialogue,” the cardinal said.
Bishop Zoltán Balog, head of the synod of the Hungarian Reformed Church, told MTI that “the suffering we endure or witness will not alienate us from God but bring us closer to Him”.
“Celebrating Easter in the shadow of war provides an opportunity to think about suffering in the light of resurrection,”
he said.
Balog said he was “grateful and proud” to see that “Hungarians are helping on both sides of the Hungary-Ukraine border”, adding that the Reformed Charity had mobilised 5,000 volunteers, with church members opening up their homes and accommodating over 6,500 refugees.
The Reformed Church has also raised “the highest amount in 33 years” in donations to help refugees from Ukraine.
“Christians must not approve of war… blessed are those that build peace while those waging wars are evil,”
Balog said. He said “no alleged or real grievance could legitimise Russia’s aggression” but called for prayers for Russians “because they, too, are suffering a lot”.
Bishop Tamás Fabiny, the head of the Hungarian Evangelical Church, told MTI that “each suffering or persecuted individual carries the wounds of Jesus”, adding that support between people “is rooted in recognising Jesus in the other person”.
He said this year’s Easter had the symbolic meaning that
“Jesus would not want us to live behind closed doors and leave those doors closed before people of a different nationality, religion, or thinking”.
Asked what churches could do for peace, the bishop said “pray, speak up, and help those suffering”. He said he was glad to see that people have showed solidarity and were ready to help. He said his community donated money and accommodated refugees in their homes at the first call.
The Evangelical Church is now in the process of organising tuition in Ukrainian in some of their schools, using bilingual teachers from Transcarpathia, Fabiny said. He added that his church was receiving help from Bavaria, the United States, and Norway to provide financial and material aid to the refugees and Hungarian families accommodating them.
Katalin Novák, the incoming president of the republic, said in an interview on Friday that it was her personal commitment to express national unity.
In the interview on public radio hosted by Zoltán Balog, Bishop of the Hungarian Reformed Church, Novák said her job of promoting the unity of the nation would be difficult — as there were many fault lines to rise above — though not impossible. She said she was convinced that
the majority of Hungarians longed for national unity.
Novák said her duty to promote national unity was not only prescribed by Hungary’s Fundamental Law “but it is also my own personal commitment”. She said her points of reference were God, faith, family and friends.
The incoming president emphasised the importance of the family, saying that “our common history embraces the history of Hungarian families”. Novák also said she was conscious of belonging to a generation that had not be born into freedom but had lived part of their lives in freedom.
Noting that “it can often be divisive [when a public figure] talks about religion and faith,” Balog asked Novák what her faith meant to her. Novák replied that her faith in God was an integral part of her life and decisive in all areas, adding that
“we must find a way of expressing our personal faith without excluding others”.
It was possible to address people “who may not have woken up [to faith] yet,” she said.
On the subject of the war in Ukraine, Novák said Good Friday was an appropriate time “to feel the pain of those who are suffering losses”. She added that the resurrection also
“gives hope that there will be a Hungarian in Transcarpathia in a hundred years’ time.”
Finally, Novák praised Balog’s initiative to turn Good Friday into a public holiday in Hungary.
Antal Uhl, a Catholic priest who saved the lives of some 2,000 Hungarian Jews in WWII, was commemorated in Baranyaszentgyörgy, in south-western Hungary, on Saturday.
Uhl, serving as the head of the Hungarian Catholic Mission in Paris during the war, issued membership certificates to Jews which allowed them to move freely and escape, the village’s local council told MTI.
Uhl was arrested by the Gestapo and sentenced to five months in prison. Before starting to serve his term, Uhl was released on parole so he could return to Hungary. He was assigned to serve as a parson in Baranyaszentgyörgy where he died on April 10, 1982.
The Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA) was among the first to start aid work in war-hit eastern Ukraine, the charity said on Thursday. Moreover, the Vatican has provided 30 million forints’ worth of emergency aid to Hungary to be spent on catering for Ukrainian refugees, the secretary of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference (MKPK) said on Thursday.
HIA funded 300 food parcels assembled and distributed by the Santis Foundation in Zaporizhzhia in March, and sent another 300 parcels to the region in early April, the statement said. HIA is assembling another 600 food parcels and 600 parcels of hygienic goods to send to eastern Ukraine, the statement said. It is also helping the families of bus drivers risking their lives while evacuating civilians from Mariupol, Berdiansk and surrounding villages, it said.
Meanwhile, the Holy See has sent 75,000 dollars directly while Cardinal Michael Czerny, the Vatican under-secretary for migrants and refugees, has arranged for the allocation of 11,000 euros. Czerny visited Hungary as the pope’s envoy in early March to learn about the situation of refugees, Tamás Tóth told MTI.
The Catholic Church will spend the money on providing supplies and transport to Ukrainian refugees in the border region as well as on purchasing non-inflammable storage tents, makeshift beds and power generators, he said.
Tóth noted that as many as 10,000 refugees had been given help at the aid centre operated by the Catholic Caritas at the Barabas border crossing point by the end of March. The charity has provided 110 million forints’ (EUR 290m) worth of financial and material support to eastern Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region over the past weeks, he said.
Bishop Armash Nalbandian, Primate of the Armenian Diocese of Damascus, on Thursday thanked in Budapest the Hungarian government for the help granted to persecuted Christians.
Nalbandian said the government’s help was important in Syria where after ten years of war and in the midst of an economic crisis, efforts are under way to rebuild destroyed churches and schools.
He said his main task was to preserve families’ faith and to help them remain in their place of birth.
He asked for further support to launch new programmes.
Tristan Azbej, state secretary in charge of assistance to persecuted Christians and the Hungary Helps programme, said that Hungary’s humanitarian aid scheme had been launched five years ago and it has provided support to over half a million people in over fifty countries since. Victims of the war in Ukraine were in focus in the past month but Christians in the Middle East have always been highlighted recipients of support, he added.
He said he met Nalbandian to review the results achieved so far and the current situation of Christians in the Middle East where efforts must be made to enable them to stay in their place of birth despite the war and the ongoing persecution of Christians.
István Sziarto (Stephen Sziarto) was born in 1910 as the son of Hungarian immigrants in West Virginia in a small coal mining community. He spent most of his childhood in a rural settlement called Pocahontas which was originally inhabited by Native Americans, hence the name. Even though he never attended a Hungarian school nor did he ever step into the motherland of his ancestors, he spoke the language fluently. His dual Hungarian-American heritage accompanied him throughout all his adventures. He led a fascinating life and proved himself in various different fields. He worked as a Calvinist priest, an FBI agent and a forestry entrepreneur. But how did the young talent, born in a tiny mining village, become one of the most prominent figures in the Hungarian-American community?
Source: https://www.facebook.com/somogyikonyvtar/
The Calvinist priest who served the Hungarian-American community
The Sziarto family lived in a typical coal mining community and often struggled to make ends meet. Therefore, according to Telex, Sziarto’s parents wanted a better future for their son. They wanted to spare him from the shortened lifespan of a coal miner who has to do strenuous physical work on a daily basis. They sent him to pursue sociology studies at the Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania. István graduated in 1931 and, in 1934, he also completed a theology seminar at Lancaster Theology Seminary and was inaugurated as a priest by the Pennsylvania Church. After his studies, he returned to West Virginia and served as a priest in a number of local towns. During this period, he married his wife, Margaret Nagy who was also a descendant of Hungarian immigrants and spoke fluent Hungarian. They raised a son and a daughter together. In 1939, he became the priest of a Hungarian community in Columbus, Ohio. He was the first priest who was born in the new land. He had a keen sense for recruiting people to the church and did a lot for the community as well. During his ministry, he had the churchyard doubled and equipped with streetlights, the church steeple covered with bronze and the outhouse changed to a modern English-style latrine. István also modernised the donation system of the local church as well as improved its communications so that believers were informed about the recent updates.
At the end of 1941, after Pearl Harbor, he volunteered to join the army but his application was rejected. The official excuse was that his work of managing a bilingual community was too precious to leave his position. But the actual reason was that the government wanted to prevent the number of soldiers belonging to one specific church outweigh the number of members of another one within the troops.
The FBI agent who helped Hungarian immigrants in ‘56
According to the information of vasvary.sk-szeged.hu, Sziarto got in contact with the Federal Bureau of Investigation when they reached out to him with a number of translation projects, from Hungarian to English and vice versa. Due to his outstanding work, they eventually offered him a permanent position which resulted in a two-decade work contract. In 1947, he was advised to travel to Washington D.C. and apply to be an intelligence agent. Since he was fascinated by this sort of work, he accepted the offer and after completing various competence tests he was finally welcomed at the FBI in 1951. The prestigious position required him to relocate to the capital with his family. His wife successfully landed a job at the National Security Agency, first as an agent at the national security division and later as a cryptographer as part of a promotion. She worked there until her retirement in 1973.
During the ‘56 Hungarian immigration wave, Sziarto interviewed hundreds of Hungarian arrivals as one of the few Hungarian-speaking FBI agents. Throughout the 20 years of being part of the FBI, István kept Washington D.C. his base. His main job responsibilities included translating documents and working as an interpreter. In an interview, he proudly claimed that he never had to rely on a dictionary as he was fully competent in translating from one language to another without using assistance. Throughout his career, he even worked on a number of confidential reports prepared for the CIA, on three different occasions. He considered the biggest highlight of his professional life the day when he had the opportunity to shake hands with J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI who served 48 years at the investigation office. He also kept in touch with his religion and held prayer evenings for the Calvinist members of the investigation office. He continued to attend FBI events and gave speeches even after his retirement.
The successful forestry entrepreneur and philanthropist
Following the end of his two-decade service at the FBI, Sziarto did not cease to seek professional endeavours. He thrived on challenges and aimed to lead an active and purposeful life. He continued to serve his community as a priest and also purchased 500-acre forestland with his wife in Slanesville, West Virginia. Sziarto hired experts and following their advice and the forestry guideline of the Ministry of Agricultural he transformed the unkempt wilderness into an area where he cultivated different types of pine trees. What initially started out as a hobby quickly grew into a fruitful enterprise. The Sziarto Tree Farm was considered one of the most impressive forestlands of the South Coast. Apart from selling pines, the married couple also held hunting events at the forest farm. The business proved to be so profitable that Sziarto and his wife made several headlines in the local magazines for their generous donations to educational institutes, for instance, the Lancaster Theologica Seminary to which they offered 10,000 USD. With the help of this amount, the seminary established an exchange student program that allowed students from Debrecen, a rural town in East Hungary, to spend a semester abroad.
Sziarto despised boredom and always tried to occupy himself with something purposeful or creative. He had a quite unusual hobby collecting odd and humorous word definitions which he started after a scout meeting. Sziarto immediately noted down every new definition he heard and, in ‘93, gathered his findings in a published book titled Deft and Daft Dictionary. That was his one and only publication, as he put it, he did not plan to make a career as an author in his old age. He also loved poems, collecting and translating the artwork of several well-known Hungarian poets such as Sándor Petőfi.
Sziarto died at age 88, in 1998, at his home due to kidney failure. His memory will be cherished forever as he was a prominent figure in the Hungarian-American community who did extraordinary things for his people.
Zsofia, A. H. (2022, February 6). AZ Amerikai-Magyar lelkész, Aki Az Fbi ügynökeként is Tartott istentiszteleteket a fehér Házzal Szemben. telex. Retrieved March 29, 2022, from https://telex.hu/eszkombajn/2022/02/06/amerikai-magyar-lelkesz-fbi-ugynok
Ambrus, L. (2021, February). Lelkész, FBI-ügynök, vállalkozó – Stephen Sziarto három élete. Retrieved March 29, 2022, from http://vasvary.sk-szeged.hu/newsletter/21dec/ambrus_laszlo_sziarto.html
Units of the Hungarian Armed Forces are continuously arriving in the eastern part of the country, the army’s chief said in Hajdúhadház, in eastern Hungary, on Thursday. Inspecting units at the local military base, Lieutenant-General Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi told reporters that the troops are being regrouped for two reasons.
First, they will assist police forces in managing a possible wave of migrants and providing humanitarian assistance, he said. Second, in the case of the worst-case scenario of armed groups drifting to Hungary, they will guarantee of the security of Hungarians, he added.
Meanwhile, Hungarian churches started to send food and collect donations.
Hungary’s Reformed Church sent 800kg of food to Ukraine early on Thursday and launched a donation campaign to help residents affected by the war, the church said in a statement. Bishops Zoltán Balog and Károly Fekete have assured the Reformed Church of Transcarpathia of their readiness to help, adding that they would “pray for all people suffering from armed conflicts”. Donors are welcome to call 1358 and contribute 500 forints per call, send money to bank account CIB 10702019-85008898-51100005 or visit https://adomany.jobbadni.hu/kampanyok/38 to make a donation.
The Baptist Charity said it was similarly ready to send aid and make preparations to help refugees arriving in western Ukraine. The charity said they had surveyed schools and social institutions in the region that could accommodate refugees, while a medical team was also put on alert. The charity said it had sent 3.5 million forints in fast aid to its counterparts in Ukraine and launched a donation campaign. To make donations, people can call 1355, or use UniCredit Bank account 10918001-55555555-55555555.
The Ecumenical Charity pledged to reinforce its centre in Berehove (Beregszász) and set up further coordination facilities in Ukraine. Communications director Kristóf Gáncs said his organisation was prepared to supply food and medicines, and help families with special needs. The charity could also contribute to efforts aimed at accommodating refugees, he added.
The Ecumenical Charity welcomes donations via the 1353 phone line or at www.segelyszervezet.hu. The United Hungarian Jewish Community (EMIH) assured Ukraine’s Jews of its support as Chief Rabbi Slomó Köves called Jewish leaders in Ukraine.
Köves has offered accommodation to the Jewish community of Transcarpathia in Hungary “for the long run, if necessary”, and pledged financial support to Anatevka, a settlement built in 2015 for Jewish refugees from eastern Ukraine. EMIH welcomes donations at https://charidy.com/Kyiv/73207.
The northernmost holy site of Islam can be found in Budapest. Built between 1543 and 1548, the “türbe” (tomb, mausoleum) is located at the top of the romantic, cobbled and very steep Gül Baba Street, on the side of the Rose Hill (Rózsadomb).
Source: gulbabaalapitvany.hu
Between 2015 and 2018, the building and its surroundings were completely renovated and the steep Gül baba Street was given a new pavement that fits in the historic environment.
In 2018, the property was taken over by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Gül Baba Cultural Centre and Exhibition Hall, run by the Gül Baba Türbéje Heritage Foundation (gulbabaalapitvany.hu), has reopened to the public in its renewed form in autumn 2018.
Source: gulbabaalapitvany.hu
As we can read in Funzine’s article, Gül Baba was a warrior Muslim monk who arrived in the city with the Turkish army that had occupied Buda. In 1541, Gül baba arrived in Budapest with the Turkish army to establish a Muslim monastery, but his death interfered in his plans.
Legend has it that his coffin was even carried by Sultan Suleiman I to his final resting place.
The octagonal domed building is dedicated to guarding the remains of the Turkish monk, known as the Father of Roses, who died during the siege of Buda in 1541.
Source: gulbabaalapitvany.hu
The türbe also has its own exhibition space, tearoom and conference rooms. There is also a stepped rose garden and a lavender garden. In the hanging garden, we are surrounded by thousands of plants, including rose specialities, tulips, daffodils, climbing plants and 140 trees.
Source: gulbabaalapitvany.hu
Funzine advises us to approach the tomb via Gül Baba Street if we can, rather than walking up Mosque Street (Mecset utca). Although the latter is a much easier track, it is less romantic, while Gül Baba Street is a slice of medieval life with all its charm.
Next to the türbe surrounded by an artistic garden, we can find an exhibition showcasing the everyday life of the once-Turkish Buda, as well as several excellent spots to admire the beauty of the city.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm.
The Brazilian government will cooperate with the Hungary Helps programme under a memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries on Thursday, the prime minister’s office said.
In the MoU focusing on humanitarian cooperation, Hungary and Brazil agreed on the need to help those in need in their homeland rather than encouraging migration, and to support Christians, “the most persecuted religious community in the world”. The two countries will jointly help Christian communities exposed to violence and share humanitarian best-practices, it said.
The government’s Hungary Helps programme seeks to assist persecuted Christians, prevent migration through humanitarian aid, and win over other governments for the cause of hundreds of millions of Christians exposed to persecution.
The programme has so far signed agreements with government agencies of Estonia, Greece, Poland, Slovenia, the United States, and now Brazil.
The Hungary Helps programme has assisted 500,000 people worldwide in the past five years, the office said.
Hungary’s junior ruling Christian Democrats has called on Finland to observe the principles of freedom of religion and conscience.
In a statement on Monday, the party’s deputy leader, Imre Vejkey, said the Christian Democrats took a stand for Finnish MP Paivi Rasanen, who faces possible imprisonment for tweeting a biblical quote.
According to press reports, the former interior minister is on trial after being accused of engaging in “hate speech” in connection with public comments she made on marriage and human sexuality.
The Christian Democrats said
the criminal procedure was “unacceptable”. “This is manifestly a liberal dictatorship,”
the statement said.
Faith expressed through a quote from the Bible should not be criminalised by Finland or any other EU member state, the statement said, adding:
