The decision was made by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, which gathered July 25 in Moscow under the auspices of Patriarch Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

An investigation was launched in the Eastern European country, while the Russian opposition press notably implicated the Christian leader in a local scandal involving moral misconduct.

Pending a more permanent decision, the diocese's administration has been temporarily entrusted to Metropolitan Nestor of Chersonesus and Western Europe.

Immediately replaced by Bishop Methodius of Yegoryevsk, Metropolitan Hilarion was also removed from his position as president of the Synodal Theological Commission. Continue reading

Novak's resignation, announced on Saturday, follows public outcry and calls for accountability from opposition figures.

Novak, known as a staunch ally of conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban, faced intense scrutiny after a local news outlet reported her presidential pardon.

The move sparked widespread condemnation. It led to demands for her resignation and the departure of former Justice Minister Judit Varga, a prominent figure in Orban's ruling Fidesz party.

The scandal marks a rare setback for Orban who has maintained a firm grip on power since 2010. It comes at a critical juncture as Hungary grapples with economic challenges and prepares for European parliament elections.

Orban's stance on issues such as child protection and LGBTQ rights has drawn criticism from the European Commission in the past.

"I made a mistake"

In her televised resignation speech, President Katalin Novak acknowledged her error: "I made a mistake."

She cited her decision to grant the pardon, expressing regret over its impact on perceptions of the government's commitment to combating paedophilia.

The opposition had been vocal in demanding Novak's resignation, with protests gathering momentum outside her office. In response, Orban proposed a constitutional amendment to limit the president's authority to pardon crimes against children, seen by many as a direct response to the controversy.

Judit Varga who endorsed the controversial pardon also announced her resignation from public life, taking responsibility for her actions. Fidesz, the ruling party, supported Novak and Varga's decisions, emphasising their accountability.

Despite the turmoil, Fidesz remains dominant in Hungarian politics, leading in opinion polls ahead of the upcoming elections. However, the fallout from the scandal underscores the challenges facing Orban's government as it navigates both domestic and international pressures.

Blow to Orban's government

The resignation of the Hungarian President Novak and former Justice Minister Varga represents a significant blow to Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his government.

This double resignation, amidst increasing protests, has deprived Viktor Orban of two very different but essential allies.

There has been strict silence from the prime minister himself, at least for now. It is undoubtedly his biggest challenge in 14 years of uninterrupted Fidesz rule.

While the high-profile resignations have dented his power, they have not yet seriously damaged it.

An anti-Orban protest is planned for Friday, but the prime minister is expected to come out fighting, presumably on Saturday when he is due to deliver his annual State of the Nation address.

Sources

Reuters

BBC

CathNews New Zealand

At a Mass celebrated Sunday in Budapest, His Holiness called on the Hungarian government — led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and President Katalin Novák, both Christian, neither Catholic — to loosen its stringent border control policies.

Over 50,000 people were present at the Mass, including Orbán and Novák.

The pope said, "We Christians, all of us called by name by the Good Shepherd, are summoned to receive and spread his love, to make his fold inclusive and never to exclude others."

He called on Hungary to "open the doors" to immigrants and refugees, noting "how sad and painful it is to see closed doors." Francis has long advocated for immigration policies bordering (no pun intended) on open borders.

The pontiff's comments were likely not appreciated by Orbán.

Under the leadership of his Fidesz party, Hungary has developed and enforced strict border-control policies, often garnering criticism from more left-leaning European heads of state.

A report released last month, however, revealed that Hungary's immigration policies were actually responsible for a more than 20 percent drop in illegal immigration into Europe as a whole.

Despite leftist criticisms, other European nations are following Hungary's lead, like Italy, under the leadership of conservative Catholic Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and even France, helmed by leftist darling Emmanuel Macron, once a vocal critic of Orbán's border policies.

Orbán has been one of the driving forces behind protecting his homeland's borders. In 2021, he explained that his border-control policies are a defense of Hungarian national identity, which he clearly holds dear:

If we invite others from outside Europe that will change the cultural identity of Europe…. There are some countries that accept it but Hungary is not among those countries. We would not like to change the cultural identity of our country so we don't accept migration as a solution to demographic politics or demographic challenges.

He loudly encourages all Hungarians to hold their national heritage dear, too.

For example, Orbán earlier this year said that his country's national anthem highlights Hungarians' "greatest struggles — sometimes peaceful, sometimes warlike — [which] have always been fought so that we can remain who we are, so that we can live as we want to live."

If the prime minister's policies are any indication, he also considers the family core to who Hungarians are and how they want to live.

Orbán and Fidesz have worked hard to encourage Hungarians to grow their families, including by exempting mothers under 30 from paying income tax and introducing various government subsidies and tax breaks to support larger families. Continue reading

At the start of his European Parliamentary elections campaign, Orban has made it clear he thinks an influx of foreigners has put national traditions including religion in jeopardy.

He says allowing more immigrants into the country has led to the "virus of (Islamic) terrorism".

Those who favor "immigration and migrants for whatever reason in reality are creating mixed-race nations," Orban says.

"Historic traditions in immigrant countries come to an end.

"In such countries, Christian-Muslim worlds are continually shrinking Christian populations."

Orban says admitting more foreigners would be a sign of "capitulation" and a threat to the Church.

"Immigration brings increased crime, especially crimes against women, and lets in the virus of terrorism."

Nonetheless, Orban is concerned for Hungary's declining population, where the fertility rate is currently 1.45 children per woman.

But "we don't just want numbers, we want Hungarian babies," he says.

He has therefore proposed a seven-point package of tax breaks and subsidies to compel households to raise more children.

His efforts to encourage Hungarians to have more babies include the opportunity for women with four children or more to be exempt from paying income tax for life.

Orban has also promised to reduce mortgage payments for those with children, offer state aid in purchasing larger family vehicles, include grandparents on maternity leave, add daycare options, and introduce new loans available for families.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• La Croix
• Image: Daily Express

"They are not refugees. This is an invasion," Kiss-Rigo told the Washington Post.

The bishop says he is in total agreement with the Prime Minister.

The pope "does not know the situation", says the bishop of a predominantly Catholic country.

"They come here with cries of 'Allahu Akbar'. They want to take over" Kiss-Rigo said.

Europe is being inundated by people who are posing as refugees but actually present a grave threat to the continent's christian, universal values, he said.

Kiss-Rigo is bishop of Szeged-Csanád, Hungary, an area that seeing some of the heaviest migrant flows in Europe.

The Washington Post reports that the bishop's description of the situation also reflects the broader spiritual struggle in Europe and the question of how to respond to the burgeoning flow of predominantly Muslim people into a largely Christian continent.

Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban is taking worldwide heat for halting the migrant's journeys, saying the in-flow of migrants is a direct challenge to Europe's Christian character.

The message of both Hungarian men is in stark contrast to Pope Francis' Sunday message, appealing to Europe Catholics moral duty to reach out and help the refugees by opening their churches, monasteries and homes as sanctuaries.

Meanwhile, Austrian Cardinal, Christopher Schönborn is calling on all the bishops in the European Union to "find a common line" on the mounting crisis in Europe.

"We expect the EU to find a common stance on the migrant issue so we may also expect a common line from EU bishops," Schönborn said September 6.

Sources

• Washington Post
• NCR
• CathNews
• Image: The Daily Beast

Marx, the President of the German Bishops' conference said he felt physically pained seeing protesters making the gestures and shouting the chants.

In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine, Marx labelled the emergence of a new xenophobia in Germany as disgraceful.

"Xenophobia and being a Catholic do not belong together", said the Cardinal Archbishop of Munich-Freising.

The Cardinal and Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, chairman of the Protestant Church in Germany were lunching together and saw the events unfold on their smartphones when they decided to go to the Munich railway station to meet and greet the migrants arriving from Hungary.

Marx labelled their decision to go to the railway station, "spontaneous".

Most opposition to the migrant influx is coming from the Die Rechte (right party), and the Cardinal has repeatedly spoken out against nationalist violence by Germans opposed to Angela Merkel's open door policy to refugees.

While opposition to migrant influx is happening in pockets across Germany, the xenophobic actions are those of a vocal minority.

Generally, Germans are reaching out to the migrants.

In Munich, stockpiled food was handed out to Syrian arrivals, while in Frankfurt a human chain passed out bags of food, clothing and toiletries, and exhausted arrivals were greeted with balloons and banners saying "a warm welcome" and "we love refugees".

Source:

• Catholic Herald

HLI president Father Shenan Boquet said the groups that take issue with pro-family countries have a "perception that you must lessen the number of children and introduce contraception, sterilisation and legalised abortion, which they call ‘sexual reproductive health' rights, in order for you to be happy and find stability."

Continue reading

Hungarian churches submitted ownership claims to around 7,000 confiscated properties after the 1989 collapse of communist rule. Under a 1997 treaty with the Vatican, the Roman Catholic Church, which owned a third of all arable land before 1948, was to receive back properties up to a value of $462 million by the end of 2011.

Refurbishing the neglected or ruined buildings is the downside, however. "While it's been important spiritually and emotionally for local communities to get back buildings they constructed with their own money, they weren't well looked after, and the vast majority are now in poor shape. Refurbishing them to modern needs will pose a heavy burden on the churches."

Tarr said in a mid-September interview that procedures for returning church properties had been "very precisely set out" in the early 1990s. He added, however, that the restitution process covered only church assets used for public services. Churches would continue to rely on state subsidies until the future of communist-seized church lands was also negotiated.

"It's unlikely churches like ours will get back all of these assets, and it ­doesn't want them anyway, since times have changed and this isn't how churches function now.

Tarr said many church communities had counted on reopening schools and mission activities in their original buildings, but he added that many had been handed back "practically ruined," often with even their windows and wiring removed.

"Some communities were wise enough to ask not for the buildings but the equivalent value in money instead," said the Reformed Church general secretary. "In some cases, though, the attachment was so strong they desperately wanted the original properties. These will now need a lot of church money" for maintenance.

Full Article: The Christian Century