Good news from Rome?

A new path for Bokor and the Catholic Church

News from the Network

After 15 years of investigation initiated by the first Court of Inquiry in the history of the Hungarian Catholic church, the Vatican has found Father György Bulányi not guilty of heresy.

On 19 October 1997, at the age of 79, Father Bulányi celebrated his first public mass in decades in a Hungarian Catholic church.

In 1964 the Vatican struck a Faustian pact with the communist government to end years of state religious persecution. The Vatican pledged to keep both priests and the laity on a path defined by the authorities.

Father Bulányi had already served eight years of a life sentence from the state for his religious activity. As part of this new agreement, he experienced persecution once again, this time at the hands of the Catholic Church. In 1981 Father Bulányi came before the Court of Inquiry under charges of heresy. A year later he was banned as a priest in Hungary and his case was passed on to the Congregation of the Faith in Rome.

The Congregation prepared a declaration for Father Bulányi to sign containing 12 quotations from the document of the Vatican Council II. Father Bulányi added another quotation from the Vatican document about freedom of conscience and signed the declaration in 1985. In February 1997, the declaration was accepted by the Vatican and consequently by the Hungarian Catholic Church.

Yet the press and the church leaders' official statements interpret the events as a return of a prodigal son to a forgiving father. Though the matter--troublesome and awkward for the Catholic leadership for so long--seems settled, this does not indicate progress on the part of the present church leadership.

Reactions from within Bokor
Response to the Vatican's decision is divided within Bokor.
"I wish our brother Gyurka had not signed anything else but the Sermon on the Mount. The hierarchy appears to be accepting and forgiving, but they impose conditions for a false recognition that our prophetical call does not need. Jesus himself never sought for this."
This bitter response from a priest who was also punished by the same hierarchy represents those who are sceptical about the results of this turning-point.

Even if Bulányi, and thus the Bokor movement, are formally accepted, one cannot expect Bokor's fate in

Father Bulányi

the future or the hierarchy's relationship to Bokor to change drastically.

This is just one more opportunity for division within the movement and for a now "legal" Bokor to loose its radical edge. Bokor has been discredited to such an extent that healing and acceptance will take decades. And there can never be true compensation for the damage done to Bulányi's mission and work.

Other members of Bokor predict a more dynamic future: this formal acceptance will help the integration of Bokor's values in the Catholic Church.

Following a Constantine church period--the first stage, the Early church, never existed in Hungary--the Hungarian Catholic Church is slowly reaching a third stage, that of a service-oriented church in a consumer society. This change also took place in the Catholic Church in the West and in the Third World with a strong emphasize on individual freedom and social justice, respectively.

By integrating individual freedom and social justice, neither of which is well-known in Eastern Europe, Bokor tried to enter a fourth stage, that of a holistic church emphasising harmony and responsible living. There was an attempt to raise awareness of global problems and the possibilities of nonviolence, sustainable development and rejection of worldly power and consumerism. It is no wonder that these ideas conflicted with those of the dominant, at that time still Constantine, church.

Looking to the Future
Now that Rome has recognized the 13 signed points - its own progressive declaration - the Hungarian leadership, too, must adapt to "Europe", and a socially conscious Vatican. This is a difficult step for the Hungarian Catholic Church. However, it is a step that moves the church in the direction of values Bokor discovered long ago.

Hopefully with the integration of the principal of nonviolence, the leadership will withdraw the bishops' declarations of 1986 and 1990 against conscientious objectors and recognize conscientious objection as a human right.

As the Hungarian Catholic priesthood ages, the church itself is losing power; this can make reintegration easier. But Bokor must continue seeking and struggling so that it can be a chance for the Catholic Church in Hungary to become a church of Jesus that has answers to offer for the present crisis of humankind.
Katalin Simonyi