Hungarians can only survive as Christians, and every new church is a bastion in the fight for the freedom and greatness of the nation, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Sunday at the inauguration of the Reformed Church of Unity in Pesterzsébet.
In his welcome address at the service, the Prime Minister said that “we Hungarians have been a church-building nation for a thousand years”. However, he said that today we live in different times than in the time of St. Stephen: there are no more church-forming nations in Europe today than there were then, but fewer and fewer.
He said: Western Europe today is in a phase of “cultural and civilizational dislocation and imbalance”, the great historical role and mission that the Christian-Christian European civilization has played over the last 500 years is now being weakened and disintegrating. Western Europe has given up its sense of mission, its cultural and spiritual heritage, it has simply thrown away its future.
“I have to think about how many times they have tried to get people to the point where they are no longer building churches, but only mosques,” he said.
At the same time, he stressed that Hungarians do not want to “abandon or drift” on the path they have been taking for a thousand years, but this is possible if they realize that the state and the church communities must work together.
He reminded the Prime Minister that this cooperation is also sanctioned by the Basic Law, which states that the protection of Hungary’s constitutional identity and Christian culture is the task of all state organs. In a democracy based on Christian foundations, the state has not only the task, but also the duty, to take responsibility for the traditional communities, from the family to the parishes to the nation.
“Our history teaches us that Hungarians can only survive as Christians. A country with borders, but a boundless soul: this is Hungary. We are not only a church-building nation, but in order to survive, we must be a church-building nation. Every new church is a bulwark in the struggle for the freedom and greatness of the nation,” he said.
For this reason, since 2010, 150 new Hungarian churches have been built in Hungary and in the areas of the Carpathian Basin inhabited by Hungarians; more than three thousand churches in Hungary and abroad have been renewed, the Prime Minister continued.
This article first appeared on MAGYAR HÍRLAP, our partner in EUROPEAN MEDIA COOPERATION.
By UME
