In recognition of his service as a teacher and his work to preserve the Hungarian identity of the institution, Father Peter Verhalen received the Knight's Cross award, to whom the award was presented by Judit Varga, Minister of Justice.

The head of the ministry visited the United States, where on Sunday he presented a state award to Archbishop Peter Verhalen, who heads the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Dallas. In her celebratory speech, Judit Varga stated that "the world has turned upside down", "humility has become a sin, arrogance has become a virtue", "they are fueling the fire of war, claiming that this leads to peace, while the extended right of peace is being pushed aside".

"We see that social engineers, following their fever dreams, confuse the natural laws originally planted in the hearts of people by God and ordained by him. "Political adventurers are deceiving masses of people from the poorer regions of the world to the more affluent countries with false promises, causing untold suffering to the masses," he said.

The minister characterized the relationship between the Cistercian order, founded in 1098, and Hungary, founded as the Kingdom of Hungary in 1000, as a brotherly community, and drew attention to the fact that the first Cistercian abbey was founded in 1142 by II. At the request of King Géza.

In the last thousand years, both Hungary and the Cistercian order have come out of trials. "Since the conquest, Hungary has existed wedged between the Eastern and Western worlds, sometimes playing the role of a bridge and sometimes a buffer zone," he said.

Judit Varga quoted the motto of the Cistercians from St. Bernard: "Flame and light!"; and recommended to the attention of the audience the example of János Boldog Brenner, a Cistercian monk who died a martyr's death at the age of 25 during the Hungarian revolution in 1956.

He recalled that when the communist dictatorship confiscated the property of the Hungarian abbey of the Cistercians and expelled a good part of them from the country, the monks who fled to the United States participated in the founding of the Dallas Catholic University.

He added that the monks founded a monastery and created a school that is now considered one of the best schools in the United States by the American Admissions Office.

The minister emphasized that today's abbot, Peter Verhalen, was a student at the school in Dallas, and he returned there first as a teacher, then as a director, and in 2012 he was elected as the first non-Hungarian abbot to head the abbey.

"With his arrival, it became clear in a short time that the Hungarians not only got a new friend, but also an abbey leader who respects the Hungarian priests and his former teachers, and who continues the close relationship with the local Hungarians," said Judit Varga in Dallas, when presented the Knight's Cross award to Archbishop Peter Verhalen in recognition of his service as a teacher and his work to preserve the Hungarian identity of the institution.

MTI