religion

Breaking – Hungarian Islamist planning a mass murder arrested in Siófok! – VIDEO

Hungary police terrorism (2)
The Budapest Prosecutor’s Office of Investigations has pressed charges against a 22 year-old man for preparing to carry out a terrorist act in Hungary “aimed at intimidating European residents”.
 
The man converted to Islam in a Budapest mosque in June 2020 and became a follower of radical, Jihadist Islam by the spring of 2021, supporting the Islamic State terrorist organisation, the prosecutor’s office said.

He took an oath to the terrorist organisation,
 
prepared an Islamic flag and displayed it in his home,
 
and started looking for potential targets for an attack. Between March and May he communicated with people on various online platforms about carrying out terrorist attacks. He received written materials and advice about preparing a pipe bomb and started acquiring the necessary materials to prepare one, ordering a remote controller from a webshop.

 
 
He agreed with someone online to commit simultaneous attacks in Siófok,
 
in western Hungary, and in Budapest with the aim of attracting publicity and intimidating the European public.

The prosecutor’s office has asked the court to hand down a prison sentence, excluding the possibility of a suspended sentence. The man is currently in custody.
Read alsoMan who spread terrorist propaganda arrested in Hungary

Monument to late Hungarian archbishop József Mindszenty was inaugurated in Krakow

Daily News Hungary Logo Új

A monument to the late Hungarian archbishop József Mindszenty was inaugurated in Krakow, in a ceremony attended by deputy House Speaker Sándor Lezsák, on Saturday.

In his address, Lezsák said that “Mindszenty’s drama was a symbol of Hungary’s history in the 20th century, the freedom fight of Christian countries, as well as the shared fate of the Polish and Hungarian nations”.

He also referred to Poland’s cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, who had played a similar, anti-communist role to that of Mindszenty.

National mourning: flag flown at half-mast in front of Parliament – PHOTOS

Mindszenty (1892-1975) was appointed head of the Hungarian Catholic Church after the second world war, but sentenced to life imprisonment on false charges by the communist regime in 1948. He took refuge at the US embassy after the 1956 uprising, and lived there until 1971 when he was allowed to leave the country for Austria.

The monument was donated by expatriate oppositionist Tibor Pakh, and sculpted by Sándor Kligl.

Baron József Eötvös
Read alsoHuman Resources Minister attends the reburial of famous statesman József Eötvös

State secretary: Hungary launches latest round of scholarships for persecuted Christians

Hungary Helps Program Education

Launching the latest round of the Hungary Helps scholarship programme on Friday, Tristan Azbej, the prime minister’s state secretary for aiding persecuted Christians, said the scheme helped students studying in Hungary return to their communities and strengthen them.

Under the scheme which has operated for the past three years, around 300 people from persecuted Christian communities in Africa and Asia have studied free of charge in Hungary, with currently 200 young people enrolled.

State secretary: the Hungarian government helps persecuted Christians

This year 100 new students are from Africa, the Middle East and Pakistan, he said, citing the examples of potential Nigerian health professionals, Iraqi oil engineers and Lebanese archaeologists.

One Iraqi returning home studying in Hungary is organising the resettlement of people fleeing the Islamic State, Azbej said as an example.

Hungary keeps in touch with graduates, he said, adding that they were grateful to Hungary since returning to their homelands with a European degree paved the way for far more opportunities.

hungary military security
Read alsoState secretary: Hungary Helps programme appreciated in Middle East, Africa

Hungarian PM’s chief of staff: Christianity disappearing from western Europe

Gergely Gulyás Reformist Church

Christianity is disappearing from public life in western Europe, while at the same time “the dictatorship of opinion” is growing stronger, the prime minister’s chief of staff said on Saturday.

In a speech at the consecration ceremony of a new reformed church in the town of Rakamaz, in north-eastern Hungary, Gergely Gulyás said that more than three decades after the fall of communist dictatorships in central Europe, “it appears that materialism is triumphant in western Europe.”

“If we want to see the kind of future that awaits countries that abandon Christianity, we should look no further than the churches of western Europe,” Gulyás said. “We can see how they’re being torn down and how coal mines, gas stations and shopping malls are being built in their places.”

Minister: Christian democracy nonexistent in western Europe in original sense of the word

“We can see how they’re being converted into concert halls, hotels, fast food restaurants and how they’re being taken over by Muslims.” he said.

The disappearance of Christianity from western European public life is also leading to the disappearance of understanding, as well as to the rise of “the dictatorship of opinion” and “constraints that are incompatible with life like gender ideology being made mandatory”, he added.

What was considered “absurdist humour” two decades ago has now not only become reality but “a mandatory state ideology in western Europe’s welfare states”, Gulyás said.

 

In these times faith becomes all the more important for survival, Gulyás said. “We don’t need to move mountains; we just need to place stones and bricks on top of each other to build small communities,” he said. Building churches is proof of faith in the future, he added.

Kindergarten-Hungary
Read alsoMinister: “we won’t allow LGBTQ propaganda in our schools and kindergartens!”

Minister: Christian democracy nonexistent in western Europe in original sense of the word

Christian-Democracy-Hungary
Major efforts are being made in European public life to deny political values based on Christianity the right to exist, and therefore Christian democracy does not exist anymore in western Europe in the original sense of the word, the prime minister’s chief of staff said on Thursday.
 
Gergely Gulyás told a conference focusing on the coexistence of religious communities in Europe that whereas thirty years ago, former Prime Minister József Antall rightly said that “even atheists are Christians in Europe”, by now the spirit of the times, supported by European Union institutions, aim to achieve quite the opposite.
 
Christian Democrats in western Europe initially abandoned all their principles to gain political power and then lost that power,
 
he said.
 
 


Currently, there are no Christian Democrat prime ministers in Europe west of Vienna, Gulyás said. During the time when the European community was made up of fifteen members, the majority of prime ministers in member states were attached to Christian democrat values or party groups, he added.
Afghanistan-Christian
Read alsoMinister: Christians who have had to flee their homelands need to be helped!

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s views on European issues – Part 1

Viktor Orbán Interview 2

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently gave an interview to the Czech conservative daily Lidove Noviny. You can read about the Hungarian Prime Minister’s views on European and Worldwide problems.

Central Europeans need more clout in European Union policymaking because the German-French axis has become outdated, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said. The Central European region enjoys the highest economic growth rate in Europe, Orbán said in the interview published on Saturday, adding that without it Europe would fall into stagnation.

Conventional wisdom used to be that central Europe needed Westerners to function, he said. But the situation has turned on its head, he said, adding that it was no longer inconceivable that Europe’s future success would be shaped by Visegrád Group countries. “That’s what I call new reality in Europe,” he added.

The prime minister said Hungary must remain a part of the European Union since the common market was in the country’s interest. But central European interests now must be taken into greater consideration than before and in proportion to its economic performance, he said.

“Set against our real economic performance and weight, our influence in EU decision-making is disproportionately small, and this has to change,” Orbán said.

Commenting on the protection of traditional national identity, he said whoever managed to be more persistent should win. Issues of education, family policy, schooling and media regulation are all national competences which “nobody can take away from us”, he said.

Orbán said the “woke movement” in the West was increasing in popularity. The words used, he added, may be new but they followed “the same intellectual pattern as Marxism”.

PM Orbán: three major battles have to be fought with Brussels to build a successful Central Europe

Whenever there is a prolonged period of liberal governments that neglect culture, traditions, history and religion, Marxism grows more popular, Orbán said. “We, in central Europe, are vaccinated against Marxism.” The prime minister added that for Westerners, Marxism was an intellectual matter. “But central Europeans know that the Marxist basis for organising the economy and society results in dictatorship; Marxism and democracy cannot work together.”  

Orbán said the West had grown out of Christianity, becoming inseparable from the enlightenment and rationality. That combination had resulted in the most competitive and successful form of life in the world, he said. “But it’s being lost now because we are giving up the historic foundations of Christianity.”

Orbán said he had hoped the EU accession of central European countries would add an anti-Communist, anti-Marxist and anti-Leninist culture to current pan-European culture. “But they did not want this.” Commenting on Hungary’s child protection laws, Orbán said Hungary had approved legislation stating that parents have the exclusive right over their children’s school and sex education, and LGBTQ activists or representatives of any other ideologies had no business in this area.

Two LIBE delegation members call for stopping ‘witch-hunt’ against Hungary

Brussels wants to change this and their position is that LGBTQ activists must be allowed in schools, he added. Orbán said the Hungarian legislation did not apply to adults above 18 years of age and only concerned the protection of children.

Orbán said French president Emmanuel Macron’s recent call for an independent EU foreign policy was an “exciting and interesting idea”. Hungary would be glad to participate in debates regarding strategic autonomy and sovereignty, he added.

He said existing differences between V4 members’ positions regarding the approach to Russia may be resolved. One of the most important tasks for the EU would be to give European security and military guarantees to Poland and the Baltic states, he added.

Commenting on disputes concerning gas supplies, Orbán said the reality was that Europe could not function without Russian gas.

Commenting on a recent visit by Pope Francis to Budapest, Orbán said people who believe in Christianity as a part of the future and not only of the past should join forces. There are many power groups that want to push the European continent to a post-Christian era, he said, which is especially popular among Brussels bureaucrats, he added. Since the Vatican is still the greatest Christian power in global politics, Orbán said he had humbly asked the Holy Father to help Christians survive.

paramilitary_assassination_viktor_orban
Read alsoParamilitary group planned to assassinate PM Orbán and opposition leaders! – VIDEO

Collegium Hungaricum Berlin to host Europe’s first literary translation festival!

Event Germany Collegium Hungaricum Berlin

The Collegium Hungaricum cultural institute in Berlin will host Europe’s first literary translation festival featuring round table discussions, workshops, concerts and a photo exhibition on the weekend, the institute said on Wednesday.

The three-day event dubbed Translationale Berlin will explore literary translation as a creative process and its transmitter role. It will also discuss questions whether a literary translator can apply “an own voice”, what makes a translation good, who decides which works constitute world literature and what is the world of world literature like.
 
The programme also includes discussions about the issue of online translation programmes
 
versus traditional translation work by experts, the emergence and impact of Globish, a form of simplified ‘global English’, as well as literary translation issues in connection with Hungarian as a unique language, CHB said.
 
 

Meanwhile, Pope Francis thanked Cardinal Péter Erdő, head of the Hungarian Catholic Church, for organising the 52th International Eucharistic Congress, recently held in Budapest, in a letter released to MTI on Wednesday. Francis voiced his appreciation for “the hidden and quiet cooperation of many – bishops, priests and church staff – , which made it possible for participants to renew their souls in the eucharist, which is the source of love and faith”.

The pontiff thanked Erdo for his “proposing good solutions to the problems and challenges occurring through the organisation of the congress”.

The pope said that he would pray for the cardinal and his archdiocese, and sent his greetings to its priests, monks and nuns, asking for God’s blessing on their mission. The congress was held in Budapest between September 5 and 12, with Francis celebrating the closing mass in Heroes’ Square.

Budapest art market event
Read also11th Art Market Budapest to feature 120 exhibitors from 30 countries

State secretary: the Hungarian government helps persecuted Christians

Hungary helps program migration

Tristan Azbej, Hungary’s state secretary in charge of aiding persecuted Christians, on Tuesday called the “western liberal” approach of promoting migration as a solution to a humanitarian crisis “mistaken and dangerous”.

Speaking to Hungarian journalists on the sidelines of the autumn session of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Tristan Azbej, Hungary’s state secretary in charge of aiding persecuted Christians, said

Christianity was the most persecuted religion,

with over 300 million innocent followers subjected to it. He noted that the Hungarian government had been the first to launch a programme with the aim of helping persecuted Christians around the world.

The Hungary Helps programme has so far led to more than a quarter of a million people remaining in their homeland or returning there, he said. Azbej said Hungary’s mission is not only to help but persuade the international community to acknowledge Christian persecution and launch an aid scheme modelled on the Hungarian programme.

He welcomed the CoE prioritizing the issues of freedom of religion and the protection of persecuted Christian during the current Hungarian presidency.

Hungary helps program migration
Read alsoState secretary: the Hungarian government helps persecuted Christians

Hungarian pilgrims’ hostel Casa di Santo Stefano inaugurated in Rome – PHOTOS

Hungarian pilgrims' hostel Casa di Santo Stefano inaugurated in Rome

Saint Stephen House (Casa di Santo Stefano), a Hungarian pilgrims’ hostel, was inaugurated in Rome on Saturday evening.

The consecration ceremony was addressed by Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, and Miklós Soltész, Hungarian state secretary for church and minority relations.

The event was attended by Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary of State for Relations with States within the Holy See, who accompanied Pope Francis during his recent visits to Hungary and Slovakia.

Gallagher was unwilling to speak about the details of the visit but said that

“it turned out that Budapest is not located so far from the Vatican”.

He added that after the International Eucharistic Congress and the papal visit more pilgrims would be expected to arrive in Rome.

Bishop András Veres, president of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops Conference, told MTI that the closing mass of the congress celebrated by the Holy Father “had given a kind of programme to the Hungarian church”.

He stressed the need to maintain and further the enthusiasm shown by the masses of people who attended the papal mass.

Photo Gallery

  • Hungarian pilgrims' hostel Casa di Santo Stefano inaugurated in Rome
    Hungarian pilgrims’ hostel Casa di Santo Stefano inaugurated in Rome. Photo: Magyar Kurír
  • Hungarian pilgrims' hostel Casa di Santo Stefano inaugurated in Rome
    Hungarian pilgrims’ hostel Casa di Santo Stefano inaugurated in Rome. Photo: Magyar Kurír
  • Hungarian pilgrims' hostel Casa di Santo Stefano inaugurated in Rome
    Hungarian pilgrims’ hostel Casa di Santo Stefano inaugurated in Rome. Photo: Magyar Kurír
  • Hungarian pilgrims' hostel Casa di Santo Stefano inaugurated in Rome
    Hungarian pilgrims’ hostel Casa di Santo Stefano inaugurated in Rome. Photo: Magyar Kurír
  • Hungarian pilgrims' hostel Casa di Santo Stefano inaugurated in Rome
    Hungarian pilgrims’ hostel Casa di Santo Stefano inaugurated in Rome. Photo: Magyar Kurír
Pope Francis Leaves Hungary 11
Read alsoPope Francis departs from Budapest, closing the 52nd Intl Eucharistic Congress – PHOTOS

PM Orbán attends consecration of new church in Budapest

the consecration of a new Reformed church in Budapest's Pesterzsebet district

Hungarians can only survive as Christians and each new church is a bastion in the nation’s struggle for freedom and greatness, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at the consecration of a new Reformed church in Budapest’s Pesterzsébet district on Sunday.

Addressing the event, Orban said “we, Hungarians have been a nation of church-builders for a thousand years, and at the time of Saint Stephen, many other nations could say that about themselves. However, we are now living in different times, with fewer and fewer nations building churches in Europe.”

Today, Western Europe is in a “phase of losing its cultural roots and balance”, Orbán said.

The historic role and mission that Europe’s Christian civilisation has played over the past 500 years is now weakening and disintegrating, he said, adding that Europe has given up its sense of mission, its cultural and intellectual heritage, and has simply thrown away its future.

“That is when I remember how many times they wanted to make us catch up with the nations that no longer build churches, only mosques,” Orbán said.

The prime minister emphasised that Hungarians do not want to abandon the path that they have been following for a thousand years, but that is only possible if they realise that the state and the churches must work together.

This cooperation is also sanctified by the Basic Law, which declares that the protection of Hungary’s constitutional identity and Christian culture is a duty of all bodies of the state, Orbán said.

In a Christian-based democracy, the state has the duty to take responsibility for traditional communities, from the family through congregations to the nation, he said.

That is why over the past eleven years 150 churches have been built and over three thousand ones renovated in Hungary and the areas of the Carpathian Basin with ethnic Hungarian communities, he said.

read also: 

Read alsoPope Francis reveals “why we will speak Hungarian in heaven” – VIDEO

Pope Francis gave private audience to Hungarian Cardinal Péter Erdő

Pope Francis Leaves Hungary 7

Pope Francis gave a private audience to Cardinal Péter Erdő on Saturday, nearly two weeks after his visit to the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest, Norbert Nemeth, Rector of the Papal Hungarian Institute of Rome, told MTI.

The Holy Father spoke about the tasks ahead the Hungarian Catholic Church and Europe, he said.

Cardinal Erdő, the archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, expressed thanks to the pope for the September 12 visit and his celebration of the closing mass of the congress.

While in Budapest, Pope Francis met President János Áder, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, members of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference and representatives of the ecumenical churches and the Jewish community.

What did Pope Francis and Viktor Orbán talk about?

Pope Francis once again highlighted the positive experience he gained in Hungary and the cordial talk he had with Hungary’s leaders. He also stressed the importance of returning to the original values of the founders of the European Union, Németh said.

On Saturday evening Erdő will attend the consecration of the Saint Stephen House, the Hungarian pilgrims’ hostel in Rome, renovated with support from the Hungarian government.

Read alsoPope Francis reveals “why we will speak Hungarian in heaven” – VIDEO

Pope Francis reveals “why we will speak Hungarian in heaven” – VIDEO

Pope Francis was happy to arrive in Budapest on Sunday, reflected in his several kind gestures, including a funny joke right after landing, the blessing of two newborns in Budapest and the closing of the Mass in Hungarian.

Within the framework of the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress, Pope Francis’s visit to the Hungarian capital on Sunday started in a pleasant atmosphere, as was revealed by the Twitter post of Eduard Habsburg, German-Hungarian Catholic writer and ambassador of Hungary to the Holy See in the Vatican and the Order of Malta.

As the Hungarian news portal hvg reports, the photo posted on Twitter shows that Eduard Habsburg is really laughing at something. As it turns out from the post, Pope Francis began his visit to Budapest with a kind joke, saying

“Why will we speak Hungarian in heaven? Because it takes an eternity to learn it!”

Not soon after, the head of the Catholic Church started the Mass at the Heroes’ Square in Budapest, wishing that the Angel of the Lord (Angelus) would be the cross between the past and the future. Pope Francis said that religiousness is the lifeblood of the Hungarian nation so attached to its roots. He wished believers to be “grounded and open, deeply rooted and respectful of others”. The archbishop emphasised the importance of love for each other as the supreme life force of everyone.

In his speech, Pope Francis expressed his gratitude to the “great Hungarian Christian family,” and said thanks to Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, as well as the bishops, priests, monks and nuns who attended, and all the believers, as well as the organisers and implementers of the International Eucharistic Congress – reported by the Hungarian news portal Szeretlek Magyarország.

“My blessing from here, from this great city, wants to reach everyone, especially children and young people, the elderly and the sick, the poor and the excluded,” said Pope Francis in Budapest, saying the last words in Hungarian and closing the prayer with the first line of the Hungarian national anthem:

“veletek és értetek mondom: Isten áldd meg a magyart!” (”I say with you and for you: God bless the Hungarian!”).

As hvg reports that, after Pope Francis finished his meetings at the Museum of Fine Arts, he did a big lap with the pope’s mobile on Heroes’ Square and Andrássy Avenue,

having stopped twice to bless two newborns.

The video published on the Facebook page of 777.hu shows that one of the newborns is being handed over, and Pope Francis is kissing him on the head.

https://www.facebook.com/777blog.hu/videos/390242799212990/

On Sunday, almost the whole world was watching Budapest due to the visit of Pope Francis. Therefore, it is quite incomprehensible that the world-famous American journal The New York Times mixed up the Hungarian capital with Bucharest and first reported on its official Facebook page that the head of the Christian church visited Romania on Sunday. As 24.hu reports, the mistake was corrected more than 14 hours after sharing the article. We sincerely hope that no similar errors will be made in the future and Budapest – ranked as the 29th best city in the world – will be known by the whole world as the capital of Hungary.

Pope’s visit showed Hungarians’ love for Holy Father, says Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest

Pope's visit showed Hungarians' love for Holy Father

It was clear during the pope’s visit on Sunday the love Hungarians feel for the Holy Father, Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, told public news channel M1.

Erdő said Pope Francis had expressed his joy at meeting such a large community of believers after a hiatus of nearly two years. The pontiff said he had felt the love of the people, Erdo added.

Francis celebrated Mass in Budapest, concluding the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress. Press chief of the congress Tünde Zsuffa said the concluding Mass had attracted several hundred thousand participants.

Erdő said

the outcome of the congress had been “pure catharsis” and the feeling that “Jesus is with us”,

giving hope and meaning to life among all the hardships, even when humanity is grappling with problems and threats, such as the destruction of the environment, climate change and economic issues.

“Many questions emerged for which the answers are not yet evident,” he said.

“We know that Christ is with us and God loves us, and that we must show each other love,”

he added.

Erdő said whether people faced such problems as a cohesive community or with a grudge against each other was not a matter of indifference. Identifying with this notion would be a “blessed gift” for everyone, he added.

What did Pope Francis and Viktor Orbán talk about?

As you know, the Pope arrived in Hungary in the morning of the 12th of September to deliver the closing mass of the 52nd Inernational Eucharistic Congress held in Budapest for the second time since 1938. But what did the head of the Catholic Church say during his stay and what did the supreme pontiff and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán talk about.

The Vatican said the “cordial” meeting lasted about 40 minutes. Pope Francis and the Hungarian officials discussed the “role of the Church in the country, the commitment to the protection of the environment, and the protection and promotion of the family”, it said. Pope Francis presented Áder with a mosaic depicting the “Papal Blessing in St. Peter’s Square”, the Vatican said.

Tragedy – Slovak man hit by a van of the eucharistic congress died on the spot!

At the meeting at the Museum of Fine Arts, Orbán presented Francis a copy of the letter Hungarian King Béla IV wrote to Pope Innocent IV in the 13th century, Bertalan Havasi said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán asked Pope Francis not to let Christian Hungary perish at his meeting with the pontiff in Budapest on Sunday, the PM’s press chief said.

Later during the closing mass of the Congress Pope Francis highlighted the courage of Saint Stephen, Hungary’s first Christian King, and Elizabeth of Hungary as examples of meeting Jesus Christ. Francis called on the faithful gathered for the mass in Heroes’ Square to

“allow the meeting with Jesus to transform us in the eucharist the way it transformed the great and courageous saints whom you respect like Saint Stephen and Saint Elizabeth”.

Pope Francis Leaves Hungary 4
Pope Francis started the closing mass of the 52nd Intl Eucharistic Congress
Photo: MTI/Zoltán Máthé

“Like them, we should not settle for little. We should not settle for a faith that consists only of rituals and repetitions.” Francis said that although the Eucharistic Congress marked the end of a journey, it should, more importantly, mark “the beginning of another”.

Scandalous! Why the victims of abuse by a Hungarian priest cannot meet the Pope?

He said the debates and fights around the Cross were a clash of God’s logic and the world’s logic. God’s logic, he said, was “humble love”. God’s path is “free of all compulsions” and seeks what is good for others, the pontiff said. Meanwhile, the world’s logic, he said, sought appreciation, prerogatives, favourable judgement and success.

Pope Francis said the difference was not about who was or wasn’t religious, but between the “true God” and “the god of oneself”.

Pope Francis departs from Budapest, closing the 52nd Intl Eucharistic Congress – PHOTOS

Pope Francis Leaves Hungary 11

The pontiff arrived at Liszt Ferenc International Airport in the morning where he was greeted with military honours and by church and state delegations.

During his visit, Francis met President János Áder and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts before holding talks with Hungarian bishops.

He then met with the delegations of the Ecumenical Council of Hungarian Churches and Hungarian Jewish organisations before greeting the Catholic faithful on his way to Heroes’ Square where he celebrated Statio Orbis, the mass closing the International Eucharistic Congress.

At the airport, Pope Francis was seen off by a church delegation consisting of Michael August Blume, the Apostolic Nuncio to Budapest; Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest; and András Veres, the head of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference; as well as a state delegation comprising Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén, Human Resources Minister Miklós Kásler and state secretary for church and minority relations Miklós Soltész.

Scandalous! Why the victims of abuse by a Hungarian priest cannot meet the Pope?

Tragedy – Slovak man hit by a van of the eucharistic congress died on the spot!

Several thousand police officers to provide security to pope in Budapest

House Speaker: Hungary acts as a bridge between East and West

52nd-International-Eucharistic-Congress-15

The world today has a “desperate need” for a unified testimony of Eastern and Western Christianity, Cardinal Péter Erdő said in a mass celebrated during the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest on Saturday.

“Such is the will of Christ who prayed for His followers to be one,” Erdő said in Kossuth Square, in front of the parliament building.

Erdő thanked Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, for attending the congress, and called the Orthodox Church leader’s speech ahead of the mass an act “rich with symbolic meaning”.

He noted that Bartholomew I had canonised Saint Stephen in the Orthodox Church in Budapest in 2000, adding that Eastern and Western Christianity were still united at the time of the death of Hungary’s first king in 1038.

At the end of mass, Erdő presented a miniature of the congress’s symbol, a cross containing relics of saints from Hungary and neighbouring countries to Archbishop of Quito Alfredo Jose Espinoza Mateus. Ecuador will host the next Eucharistic Congress.

52nd-International-Eucharistic-Congress-4
Mass in front of the Hungarian Parliament at Kossuth Square
Photo: MTI/Zoltán Máthé

Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén; Miklós Soltész, the state secretary for church and minority relations; and Bishop Tamás Fabiny of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary, also attended the mass.

Participants at the mass filled the rows of chairs placed on Kossuth Square, and many also stood around the cordoned-off area and in the side streets leading to the square.

After the mass, tens of thousands walked in a candlelight procession to Heroes’ Square.

Hungarians have always considered it their mission to act as a bridge between East and West, House Speaker Laszló Kövér said on Saturday, at a meeting in the parliament building with church leaders visiting Hungary for the 52nd Eucharistic Congress.

Kövér noted the infrequency of the presence of so many “committed representatives of fraternity and understanding” in a place of political debate.

“I hope that the peace that radiates from your spirits will remain here for all of us in the coming difficult months, in the run-up to the election campaign,” he said.

Kövér quoted from a letter of Saint Ladislaus in which the Hungarian king conceded his guilt because the “deeds of earthly dignity” – politics, in today’s language – cannot be advanced without small indiscretions.

If that was how it was with a ruler venerated as a saint, he said, then perhaps today’s generations of politicians may also hope for a bit of understanding from church leaders.

Everything that Christians believe in is today imperiled by “dark, Satanic forces”, Kövér said. Those forces “endanger our civilisation founded on Christianity, our freedom and human dignity,” he added.

Kövér extended a special welcome to religious leaders from neighbouring countries, saying their presence was “proof that the Christian faith unites the nations in our region and that we can and should build on that foundation”.

Ecumenical Patriarch laid the cornerstone of new a Orthodox church in Budapest

Constantinople Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I 7

Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople visited Budapest as part of the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress and together with Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén laid the cornerstone of a new Orthodox church in Budapest on Saturday.

The church is being constructed in the courtyard of a building in Múzeum Street, in central Budapest, that was given to the Orthodox Church in 2017.

Bartholomew I thanked Hungary’s government for the building and for funding the construction.

He said a Dialogue Centre being established would serve as a place for “discussion, culture, faith and an exchange of views, welcoming all who come with goodwill”.

Semjén said Hungary has always been “a bridge between East and West, between eastern and western Christianity”.

52nd-International-Eucharistic-Congress-11
Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, and Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén laid the cornerstone of an Orthodox church in Budapest
Photo: MTI/Soós Lajos

On Saturday during his speech at the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest, Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, said eucharistic spirituality has the power to transform society and to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

In the speech delivered ahead of a celebration of holy mass, the patriarch said that the church gathers believers in a “community of love” in the liturgy of the eucharist, with no regard to race, gender, age or cultural, social and material status.

The liturgy is not a meeting of individual believers but of a community of believers with God, a “social event”, he added.

He noted that the word eucharist means “thanks” in Greek.

Constantinople Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I 6
Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, and Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén laid the cornerstone of an Orthodox church in Budapest
Photo: MTI/Lajos Soós

“It reminds us that our lives and the entirety of creation are not our property but rather they are a precious gift of God the Creator. The proper response for receiving this gift is gratitude and doxology,” he said.

“The eucharistic spirit has a tremendous transformative power for society. This way of life is the correct answer to major contemporary challenges, such as ecological problems and the violation of human rights,” the patriarch said.

“In this sense, the initiatives of our church for the protection of the natural environment and the culture of solidarity were not an occasional reaction to the relative problems today, but they are rooted in the eucharistic experience and theology,” he added.

Pope Francis arrived in Hungary for the 52nd Intl Eucharistic Congress – PHOTOS

Pope Francis arrived in Budapest on Sunday morning to celebrate the closing mass of the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress.

The pontiff was given military honours at Liszt Ferenc International Airport and greeted by church and state delegations.

The church delegation was headed by Michael August Blume, the Apostolic Nuncio to Budapest, Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, and András Veres, the head of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

The state delegation was headed by Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén, Human Resources Minister Miklos Kásler and state secretary for church and minority relations Miklós Soltész.

Francis is next scheduled to hold talks with church leaders at the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts.

He will also meet President János Áder and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán before holding talks with Hungarian bishops. Afterwards, the pope will meet with the delegations of the Ecumenical Council of Hungarian Churches and Hungarian Jewish organisations.

Francis will then meet with the Catholic faithful at Heroes’ Square before celebrating Statio Orbis, the mass closing the International Eucharistic Congress.

The pope is scheduled to leave for Bratislava in the afternoon.