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BOX-FOLDER-REPORT: 31-2-218
TITLE:             Hungarian Priests Arrested
BY:                KD
DATE:              1961-2-9
COUNTRY:           Hungary
ORIGINAL SUBJECT:  Hungarian Unit
THEMATIC SUBJECTS: Hungary--1956-1965, Religion, Political Persecution

--- Begin ---

RFE EVALUATION AND
ANALYSIS DEPARTMENT
HUNGARIAN UNIT

F-132

News Background

X CURT - H - HUNGARIAN PRIESTS ARRESTED                                                               

Munich, February 9-- The Hungarian Ministry of the Interior announced
on February 7 that eight Roman Catholic priests and clerics, a former countess
and a former officer of the Hunyadi SS Panzer Grenadiers
(a voluntary Hungarian-- speaking body of troops recruited in the late days of the war to fight with
the German SS) have been arrested for taking part in an alleged conspiracy
against the state the/indecently assaulting boys entrusted to their care.

/former also/

It is interesting to note that the announcement comes from the Ministry
of the Interior, not from the police or the public prosecutor's office as
would be normal.  On the 24th of November 1960, for instance, a Catholic priest,
Zoltan Bolcsvolgyi, was arrested on a charge of having committed an indecent
offense, but in the official announcement the Budapest Headquarters of the
Civil Police was given as the arresting authority.  The wording of the present
announcement that these people were arrested by "organs of the Ministry of the
Interior" is the first important evidence since the revolution that the
successors of the AVH are back at work as an autonomous body.

Accusations of indecent behaviour have been standard tactics for the past
seven months.  They are designed to blacken the clergy's reputation, and it is
of some significance that in four cases out of six the Catholic priests were
accused of having committed an indecent offence against altar boys.  The
implication here is that not only is it unwise for parents to send children to
religious instruction and church, but that it is also dangerous,  It would
appear from one of the provincial papers ("Fejermegyei Hirlap ", Nov.13,1960)
that the government's new penal code, now under officially stimulated discussion,
has    been harnessed to religious propaganda, because it stipulates new and
harsher punishments to discourage this type of offence.

In cases such as the present one government propaganda aims at showing
that corruption of the body and corruption of mind are two facets of the same
guilty disposition.  Priests who conspire against the People's Democracy, or
are simply over-zealous in representing the Christian case, are also corrupted
in the flesh, using religion as a pretext for perverted indulgences of the flesh
They are also usually portrayed  as being excessively and disgustingly fat,
or of a lean, rapacious and choleric character.  Such men are dangerous, and
the message that is being plugged for the benefit of parents is that if such
are the servants of God, the Church itself could do with a reappraisal.

The fact that the present group includes, besides the priests, a former
countess and a former officer of the Hungarian SS, is an obvious attempt to
bring the clergy into public disrepute by putting an equation mark between the
Church and the aristocracy, and the Church and Nazism.,  The technique is
a standard one throughout Eastern Europe; in Hungary the last phase of the
collectivization of agriculture may have added new impetus to the government's
campaign against the Churches.  The Budapest announcement says that these
people were "leaders" of a conspiracy and this would seem to indicate that
other arrests and possibly a show trial may follow.

X CURT - H -- (1) HUNGARIAN PRIESTS ARRESTED F-133
                                              
Hungarian News Background page 2 9 February 1961

What is actually expected of the Hungarian Catholic clergy if they are
to stay within the favor of the government has been put with almost brutal
frankness by Hungary's leading peace priest, the renegade Miklos Beresztoczy
in Katolikus Szo - Jan.8, 1961.

He wrote:

"The new-year makes it imperative for every priest of conscience   to
clarify in his mind what sort of a political and social stand he wants to
take.  No one is excused by saying that he has not been able to reach   this
stage.  For an intelligent person, used to examining questions of his
consciences, there has been plenty of time and experience in this field.      This
new stand which he must take also means that false, illegal and crazy  actions
must be avoided and made impossible."

It would be difficult to think of a clearer warning.  The political
police and the apostate clergy are back in proud and open league.

  OSA / Guide / RIP / 1956 / RFE/RL Background Reports : Subjects | Browse | Search