The holy holiday of Christmas is an opportunity to reflect on our image of our Christian faith and the church, to summarize its position in ourselves and in the world. However, the events of the latter show that there is a problem. It's a big deal. Or is that just what we think? We are trying to think through the question with Zoltán Osztie, the parish priest of the Budapest-Downtown Assumption Parish and the president of the Association of Christian Intellectuals.

Maybe it just seems so to me, but I think that the two major Christian holidays reflect social events. Christmas is the celebration of birth, the beginning, and the life of Jesus is the fulfillment of faith. The birth of Christianity and its becoming a world religion can be paralleled with this. At Easter, we remember the persecution, torture, and murder of the Savior, and Christianity is experiencing its Easter in our days.

Let's not forget that after suffering and the Way of the Cross there is resurrection, and I believe that awareness will come in society as well. In any case, I would not claim that our time is more terrible than other eras, such as the time of totalitarian dictatorships or world wars. We should not create an atmosphere of the end of the world, instead, let's see what the real situation of our world is and what our task is, what we have to do, what we can do to improve it.

But it cannot be disputed that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world today. Maybe not so much here, but...

But yes, here too. This can already be felt at school. I recently spoke with a teacher who teaches at a Catholic school, who complained that some parents have an incredible amount of hatred towards the church school, the teachers, and the church. Of course, this does not manifest itself in bloody persecution, but in opposition and hatred. What is also logical, you can see the cause-and-effect relationship: denial of God became accepted, which directly leads to the persecution of Christians, and from this comes hatred of humanity. And they no longer attack simply because we are Christians, we are now at the point where the person himself is exposed to the attacks. That is why we launched a national life protection program, in which life protection organizations joined together in an alliance, because we see how necessary it is to protect human dignity. This is not a Christian question, but a universal human question. We were human beings, the dignity and respect that human beings deserve.

I have very different opinions about the protection of life and abortion. Killing the fetus is murder, even if they try to make all sorts of excuses for it accepted. We have to accept the consequences for our actions, even if they are unpleasant or serious. To use a simple example: I love driving a car. When I'm behind the wheel, I don't want to hurt anyone, but one small mistake is enough and I might run someone over. I wanted? No way. It just happened and I have to bear the consequences. The same can be said about sex. I didn't want a child? No, but it still comes, and from the moment the egg is fertilized, it is already a life, it contains everything that a person will become after birth. If even a multiple murderer is not executed, because there is no death penalty, on what basis do they dare to execute an innocent fetus incapable of self-defense?

That is true, but the protection of life means much more than the rejection of abortion. Life lasts from conception to death, so the protection of life also applies to the duration of our entire life on earth. There are at least a hundred different areas covered by life protection, and these already mentioned life protection organizations do a wonderful job in the most diverse situations in life, but so far the activities have not been coordinated. Now this has happened, which will have a practical effect. An alliance was created in which the work of truly helpful services embraces the entirety of life. It is indeed true that one of the important areas is action against abortion, because killing the fetus is unacceptable, but at the same time there is another danger, namely the case of euthanasia. This is the other extreme, the other end point.

It is already commonplace that a woman can do anything for two things: to have a child and not to have one. Abortion is believed to be the means of the latter, not counting the possible psychological and biological aftereffects. Then, if they wanted a child later, it might be too late, they became barren. Then comes the idea of ​​artificial insemination.

The bottle baby program may be effective in some cases, but at the same time, it is an inhumane and expensive procedure. However, there is another option, but few people know about it. In the Irgalmasrendi hospital, there is a support service dedicated to the treatment, cure and elimination of infertility. A wonderful and successful team working with better results than the bottle baby program. This possibility should be popularized and the life protection association can play a big role in this as well.

And for churches, regardless of denomination. The protection of life is not a sectarian, but a general human issue. But when I mentioned religion, I remembered a question that had been lingering in my mind for a long time. Where did the militant Catholic Church go? I think that as one of the largest NGOs, it would not only have the right, but also the duty to take a stand on certain political issues. I do not mean party politics, but political guidance. For example, before an election, the attention of the faithful should be drawn to the fact that they cannot in good conscience vote for atheist, anti-church parties. Such speeches are not heard very often, even though each of the civil organizations tries to protect their own interests. Why not the Catholic Church?  

I partly agree, and anyone who knows me knows that I do accept my opinion, but at the same time we need to differentiate. The church must stay away from party politics, we cannot help but participate in the exercise of power in the way that politicians or parties should. At the same time, I agree that in public life and in important and current issues affecting our lives, it is our dog's duty to show ourselves, not to retreat, but to show the way. Of course, not by representing our private opinion, but by following the revelation of the Gospel, expressing the conclusions drawn from it.

Let's go back to the schools already mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, because I don't understand it. How can a parent turn with hatred towards the church, when he himself decided to enroll his child there? After all, this was not a divine decree, but a personal decision. And if he chose to do so, in theory he had to accept a kind of spirituality. Although I'm starting to doubt this spirit as well. The foul-mouthed Lili Pankotai also went to a church high school...

He was also removed from there…

I wouldn't be uncertain if it was just this one case. But there is the teacher of Szent Imre High School in Cistercian, Buda, who invited the well-known hateful Libshevik (liberal-Bolshevik) propagandist NoÁr, or one of the physics teachers of the Budapest Piarist High School, who showed the propaganda film of the sorosist portal called 444 instead of teaching physics. After this, one is no longer surprised to hear that church school teachers are protesting, while they know that the teachers' demonstrations are organized by the Libshevik side, and that they are the greatest enemies of church schools. What is going on here?

It's obviously inside, the enemy has infiltrated. Those who want to destroy not only the church, but also traditionally Christian societies. They are obviously attacking from within, we are witness to this. These are consciously integrated and disrupt from the inside. This is the most effective solution, because external attacks are easier to detect and counter. You have to be prepared for the fact that there are not only parents, but also teachers who do not identify with the Christian spirit that the school should represent. The enemy attacks from within with uncertainty and disruption, we see this from the lowest levels to the highest, and we have to confront them.

I still don't understand. Okay, there are teachers who work against religion and the church and I know that until they show themselves, we don't know who they are. But when they show themselves in such a primitive way, what happens? The physics teacher in the propaganda film is warned. Well, this is the consequence! But it is still more than in the NoÁr case, where the head of the Cistercian School Authority regrets what happened. That's it. Now these teachers do not change because of this, they probably did what they did because they are guided by the same principles as NoÁrt and 444. What and how can they teach students beyond this? If it were up to me, an hour after what happened, none of them would be members of the faculty.

Yes, there are cases in which much more radical action should be taken. We have probably reached the point where there is a strong fear among those who should decide, they suspect that after a radical step, the institution and everyone who is there would be attacked by angry attacks.

Even without it, the attacks continue...

Indeed, but there is nothing new in this. In the midst of ungodliness, the presence of the Good God and his representatives have always provoked attacks. However, we should not back down, we should overcome this weakness of ours, or even our sin, we should not run away and we should not be afraid, because if God is with us, then who is against us? We must not only confess this, but also apply it in life.

Some people do. There is KÉSZ, i.e. the Association of Christian Intellectuals, a national network that unites active Christian intellectuals. Can this organization be the driving force of renewal?

KÉZZ has certainly proven to be a suitable tool. It has been in existence for more than 30 years now, and by its very existence it has proven that it is a suitable tool for professing and spreading the faith. God considered it a suitable tool, which is why it survived. The organization has more than 70 local groups, any of which can be joined by anyone who shares our faith, is a truly committed Christian intellectual, is led by a desire to improve, and wants to take an active part in public or church life. You can even create a new local group yourself. The same applies to pro-life groups. We have started and will now devote a lot of energy to building a network. The pro-life groups cover the Carpathian Basin as a network and in this way can give sufficient weight to the cause of pro-life. The goal is for the idea of ​​life protection to gain ground in public life, public thinking and public discourse.

Finally, one more question, but this one is more of a "private" nature. How does a parish priest prepare for the holiday? Everyone knows about midnight mass, but little else.

This starts long before Christmas for me. In such cases, I hold a lot of spiritual exercises, they mainly take place in Leányfalu, in the Szent Gellert spiritual practice house. The house is run by a very nice Greek Catholic priest friend of mine and his wife, and the environment is ideal for a community to retreat from the noise of the world, make friends, deepen their faith and mentally prepare for the holiday. In such cases, I myself prepare very seriously for weeks for these spiritual exercises, I think over and over again about the topics we set before ourselves. Then I also hold reflections for different communities. Last time, for example, I considered this to be the downtown group of KÉSZ, but I also consider it to be married and young couples. Confession is a particularly big task during Advent, I confess a lot at this time, my day is divided into minutes, which starts at 6 o'clock with a rorate, so I have to get up at five and the work extends well into the evening. Then the days of the holiday follow, which is also wonderful for me. I was just now reflecting on Saint Francis' Christmas in Greccio, on how he celebrated the birth of Jesus. His spirit is what I try to deepen in myself. Saint Francis found the balance between the inner content and the outer form. Look at the manger and understand the message. This is what our age does not understand. That's why there are people who "don't like" Christmas, because for them it's just a tiring day of eating, drinking and giving presents. He doesn't like this holiday because it doesn't have the real content, he doesn't understand who we celebrate and why we celebrate it. In this way, of course, the matter slips by the wayside, the form becomes important and the holiday becomes empty. Empty forms must be thrown into the trash. But we will never throw away Christmas. For a person of faith, celebration in a loving family community and personal immersion remain. They also ring in our souls and the mystery, the tender love of the Good Lord lives on. Saint Francis of Assisi uses this expression: tender love. Only those who have this tender love in their hearts can only accept the joy of Christmas.

Author: György Tóth Jr

Cover photo: parish priest Zoltán Osztie. Photo: MTI/Márton Mónus