With the help of the media, the war is taking place in front of our eyes today, despite this, the truth and the possibility of accurate information are being harmed - Archbishop György Udvardy, the chief pastor of the Archdiocese of Veszprém, tells mandiner.hu, who emphasizes: war is never a solution, with all our strength for peace must strive.
"The faith of our ancestors is the hope of the future" - this is the new motto of the Archdiocese, which the Archbishop emphasizes in his video messages to his followers. He says: "I was looking for an easy-to-understand message that both the faithful and the clergy can relate to, and that also summarizes our activities. Not for the sake of passwords, because they change quickly, but rather to help organize our thoughts.
This is how I found this motto, which was formulated by the faithful of Veszprém during the 1938 Eucharistic Congress and placed in the Blessed Gizella Chapel, so it is connected to the ancient source of the archdiocese.
The way we live and the way we look to the future is not without precedent. Our ancestors, who made decisions and struggled, clung to Christ even in times more difficult than ours, because they experienced that Jesus gives meaning to life, decisions, relationships, and culture.
It is a fact that we have gone through great changes from a cultural point of view, while the concept of time has become narrower for the individual. In the shadow of technical devices, we increasingly think that we do not need the past and, in fact, we are not very interested in the future, if we are, then mostly in the short term and driven by desire. This is also why it is necessary to look at our roots: the values of the past should have the power to provide a point of interpretation for today. And when we look to the future, we should not only think about ourselves, but also about our communities and society, and we should not only look at the near future, but also think about what will happen ten years from now. We don't ask many questions today (both individually and collectively) about what makes a society work. We argue about who thinks right or wrong, but we don't get to the basics.
Pope Francis also warns that comfort weakens us in our endurance, steadfastness, and struggle for good. Regardless, we have to fight for the good, which is more difficult if our Christianity is weakened. Here we can think about the transformation of culture, the influence of the media on thinking, and the weakening of Christian parties in major European countries.
The weakening of Europe is visible and palpable in the field of culture, in the desire to have children, or in the way we think about the family. All this is only intensified by the new ideological phenomena.
Connecting past and future also highlights that I can no longer act in the past, the future is not yet available to me, but I can at the moment: my current decision, my current action, is what I can use to build the future.
One of Veszprém's biggest projects is the renovation of the castle quarter, which is one of the main drivers of current action in the diocese. The father said in the video: "We can also talk about religious and liturgical renewal in connection with the developments."
Of the eighteen buildings, the churches and chapels are outstanding from a historical and art historical point of view.
The most significant of these is the cathedral, which needs to be completely renovated due to its current condition: the walls are waterlogged, the flooring, the heating system, and the stall system created in the mid-'70s must be replaced, which is completely foreign to the cathedral. We want to highlight this church as a cathedral, as the bishop's cathedral, i.e. the place where the bishop has his chair, where he performs his teaching and liturgical service. During the renovation between 1907 and 1910, an ancient basilica style was intentionally created, and we would like to follow this logic. The point of everything is to serve our holidays. The St. George's Chapel represents both an artistic value and a collection of archaeological findings of historical significance. When it received a protective roof more than sixty years ago, no more could be done for the chapel. However, we now have the opportunity to create the cathedral's baptistery in it, as it was in the Middle Ages. We will also develop the Gizella Chapel, where we will place the relic of Blessed Gizella, which my predecessors received from Passau.
Our goal is for the visitor to be touched not only by the artistic value, but also by the sacredness. We expect many tourists, but we also want to ensure the spiritual needs of the pilgrims so that they can pray, calm down, and grow in faith.
Our words are peace, interest, honest question-and-answer, truthful speech, respect for authority, thanks, gratitude, asking for forgiveness, forgiveness, looking out for each other, devotion, struggle, loyalty, freedom , the happiness." - said the archbishop, and this is what the Archdiocese of Veszprém offers in addition to the professional and liturgical renovation of the buildings for the purification of the soul in connection with the 2023 European Capital of Culture event series.
Source and full article: mandiner.hu/Gergely Vágvölgyi
Featured image: Magyar Kurír
