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 Concerning the national-ethnic relations dominating the Carpathian basin at his time, as well as the injustices and subjections oppressing the peoples of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, at the beginning of the twentieth century Endre Ady formulated his biblical change-hastening question:
“Will the Babel of enslaved nations/finally awaken?”
His question resonated with universal validity:
“For Hungarian, Romanian, Slav sorrow/will forever remain one and the same.”
Twenty years ago the Babel-like construction of communist dictatorship, the inheritor of the fallen fascist totalitarian regime, did also crumble. The Lord “confused the languages of those” who built their society’s “sky-high” godless regimes on the bases of lawlessness and injustice (Moses 1:11).
After the fall of atheist communism the “enslaved peoples”—countries and nations—returning to Europe’s free community are appropriately described by the words of Pope John Paul II uttered with the occasion of his visit to Budapest in September 1996: “Hungary looks to Europe with trust as to a great common home where every nation must be able to express its specific richness with which it is distinguished. For this to happen it is necessary for the coexistence between the particular nations to be always based on solid foundations of law, justice, solidarity, and cooperation.”
On the twentieth anniversary of the 1989 regime change, in the ecumenical community of our churches, the thousands of the faithful congregation gathered in the Dome of Szeged, the members and representatives from Hungary and from our communities beyond the boarders, the Hungarians from the Carpathian basin state with astonishment and brotherly solidarity towards each other that most of the countries of the late Soviet block, in which these communities live, are still haunted by the spirit of the late national-communist regimes, and their oppressive, anti-Hungarian and anti-minorities, intolerant and discriminative politics and methods are still effective and prevailing.
The participants of the Carpathian-Basin Ecumenical Meeting from Szeged, its church, civil and political representations raise their voices in solidarity with the 600 thousand Hungarians from Slovakia who make up more than ten percent of the country’s citizens. They also wish to bring to the international democratic public’s attention the issue of the Slovakian state-language-law that comes into effect on 1st September 2009, as well as demanding its immediate reviewing, or rather its revocation from the post-communist Slovakian government.
We firmly reject this “oppressive law committed by the Slovakian communist-chauvinist government” hallmarked by Ján Slota’s name that—with its gravely discriminative dispositions—threatens the Slovakian Hungarians’ ethnic identity, and exhausts the notions of “ethnic totalitarianism,” “linguistic imperialism,” and “cultural fascism.”
We consider incomprehensible and unacceptable the European Commission’s official standpoint according to which the Slovakian language-law—and László Sólyom Hungarian president’s scandalous expulsion from Slovakia—“does not come under the European Union’s competences” but represents the two Union member-states’ “internal matter.”
In concordance with Jerzy Buzek European Parliamentary president’s standpoint, we turn to the organizations and institutions of the unified Europe, as well as to our international sibling churches and church- and ecumenical organizations for help and support. The EP president declared: “This law hurts not only Hungarians but also the spirit of European integration and the principles of democracy. This is no longer a mere Slovakian-Hungarian matter. The issue becomes a problem of the whole European Union that we, the EP’s representatives need to deal with.”
In the same spirit, our Carpathian-Basin Ecumenical Meeting also refers into the attention of the European community the human- and minority-rights offences suffered by the Hungarians from the other Union member-state, Romania, amongst many the Csangó-Hungarians’ forced assimilation as well as the issue of the discriminative education law in preparation; further, the Hungarian-beatings from Serbia, and the issue of methodical crippling of minority education in the Ukraine.
Our churches consider especially grave the limitations, respectively the interdictions concerning the use of the Hungarian language during worship that our Slovakian brethren and the Catholic Csangós from Moldova are subjected to.
Our Hungarian Churches celebrated the Year of the Bible last year, during which there was special emphasis placed on the following: the Lord—through his Holy Word—speaks to all nations in their own tongues. Last year’s International Bible Exhibit from Brussels voiced the same massage.
On the first Pentecost, after the fulfilling of the Holy Spirit, everyone gathered “was hearing the words of the Disciples in his own language”—the Book asserts (Acts 2:6).
We are hoping, we are raising our voices and praying for such a Europe where each nation and each language is tributed with this godly honor, and where our human dignity is not harmed by minority-oppressing politics, laws or measures.
In a Europe unified in its diversity, in the spirit of our Christian and national roots, values and heritage, we hold on to our identity and freedom being fully in the knowledge of the fact that “The nation lives in its faith and its language.” This is what the hoped arrival of Europe’s Pentecost—through the Lord’s Word and Holy Spirit—here, in the Carpathian Basin, means and it denotes the same for Hungarians, Slovakians, Romanians, Serbs, Ukrainians, and Croatians.
Szeged, 30th August 2009 Signing in the name of the Carpathian-Basin Ecumenical Meeting: Kiss-Rigó László Szeged-Csanád bishop
Tőkés László EP-representative
Bábel Balázs archbishop, Kalocsa-Kecskemét Bishopric
Spányi Antal R.C. diocesan, Székesfehérvár Bishopric
Pápai Lajos R.C. diocesan, Győr Bishopric
Bogárdi Szabó István bishop, Dunamellék Reformed Bishopric
Pap Géza bishop, Transylvanian Reformed Bishopric (Ötvös József generális director)
Csűry István assigned bishop, Királyhágómellék Reformed Bishopric
Fazekas László bishop, Slovakian Reformed Christian Church
Dr. Erdélyi Géza ret. bishop, president of the Hungarian Reformed Universal Synod
Gáncs Péter bishop, Southern Evangelical Bishopric
Mózes Árpád, ret. bishop, Transylvanian Evangelical-Lutheran Church
Bálint Benczédi Ferenc bishop, Transylvanian Unitarian Church
Balázsi László chief notary, Hungarian Unitarian Church
Dr. Bóna Zoltán Secretary in chief, Ecumenical Council of Hungarian Churches
Dr. Mészáros Kálmán president, Hungarian Baptist Church
Csáky Pál president, Party of Hungarian Coalition
Schmitt Pál, vice-president of European Parliament
Szájer József EP-representative
Surján László EP-representative
Deutsch Tamás EP-representative
Magyar Anna president, Csongrád County Council
Becsey Zsolt president, Hét Határ Egyesület (Seven Frontiers Association)
Balog Zoltán president, Hungarian Association of Civil Cooperation
Dr. Hende Csaba, Alliance for the Nation Foundation
Dr. Szűrös Mátyás, Former president of the Republic
Lezsák Sándor vice-president of Hungarian Parliament
Éhn József president, Association for the Hungarians from the Carpathian Basin
Weisz Péter president, Barankovics Israelite Workshop
Kamarás István director, Roma College
Farkas Csaba László director, Roma Scientific and Arts Association,
Békés County chief-vajda
Orosz Ildikó president, Hungarian Pedagogical Association
Lászlóffy Pál president, Hungarian Teacher’s Association of Romania
Ágoston András president, Vojvodina Hungarian Democratic Party
Páll Sándor president, Democratic Alliance of Hungarians from Vojvodina
Kovács Miklós president, Transcarpathia Hungarian Cultural Alliance
Jakab Sándor president, Democratic Alliance of Hungarians from Croatia
Dr. Széchey Béla, Jézus Testvérei Ecumenical Deacon Order |
