Faced with the landslide victory of the opposition (Tisza, led by Péter Magyar) over the former majority (Fidesz, led by Viktor Orbán), Hungary’s Christian Churches are expressing a certain embarrassment (12 April).
The Catholic Church in particular — with approximately 3 million faithful out of a population of 10 million — had been extensively favored by the Orbán government.
Magyar won 141 of the 199 parliamentary seats, securing 52% of the vote with an extraordinary turnout (77-78% of those entitled to vote). The political reversal will have consequences for the broad institutional mandate — schools, educational and cultural institutions — that the Church had received from the previous majority.
A call for unity
After an initial brief comment from the Bishops’ Conference spokesman, who hoped for “constructive and collaboration-based cooperation” with the future Tisza government, the president, Bishop János Székely, wrote a letter ten days later congratulating the new Parliament and the new majority.
In the letter, the Bishop of Szombathely recalls how “election campaigns always bring emotions, intense emotional reactions and inflict many wounds” from which it is necessary to heal. He calls for respect for others’ opinions and commitment to the common good. “Our country is a heterogeneous community in terms of worldview, where believers and non-believers, people who think differently, are all full members of the nation.”
After highlighting the extraordinary participation of young people, Bishop Székely reflects on the Church, its authenticity and vitality, and its calling to listen to everyone — including those who have drifted away and those who criticize it. “It is essential to rethink our pastoral tasks, strengthen our relationships with our communities and with different groups in society, and do everything possible to convey the authentic message of the Gospel.”
He calls on the new government to strengthen social cohesion, the rule of law and the fight against corruption. “We trust that true values — family, justice, peace, the safeguarding of creation and solidarity with the poor — may guide the new rulers.”
He expresses the hope that the new powers “will continue to allow the Churches to carry out public tasks in the fields of education and social welfare that are much in demand from broad sections of society.”
The more far-sighted Catholic voices had long warned against the excessive closeness of Church institutions to Viktor Orbán’s power and their insufficient critical capacity towards his “illiberal democracy.” Several surveys confirmed this, and even the abbot of the Pannonhalma monastery, Cirill Tamás Hortobágyi, acknowledged the existence of widespread anti-clerical sentiment among the people. (see https://www.settimananews.it/informazione-internazionale/ungheria-elezioni-la-chiesa-orbanizzata/)
When we asked for comment, a prestigious theological figure attributed the electoral defeat rather hastily to people’s drift away from Christian values (family, patriotism), to young people’s subservience to new social media, to the opposition of Brussels and the blocking of European Union subsidies in the face of the economic crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and in the Middle East. An insufficient analysis — though one that falls well short of the deranged assertion of László Kövér, former Fidesz minister and parliamentary speaker, according to whom “Satan won the battle, but victory belongs to Christ.”
Compromised priests and bishops
Despite the Bishops’ Conference’s quiet invitation last October to priests and bishops to refrain from intervening in the political battle, the Catholic website Szemlelek.net documented some ten cases of improper involvement by parish priests in the bitter electoral contest. Three bishops allowed themselves to be drawn into electoral initiatives: András Veres, Bishop of Győr and former president of the Bishops’ Conference; László Kiss-Rigó, Bishop of Szeged; and Antal Spányi, Bishop of Székesfehérvár.
Among the more thoughtful voices, I would mention the Catholic priest, theologian and former parish priest at the Esztergom basilica, Csaba Török, and the layman and professor of patristics at the University of Pécs, György Heidl.
The former observed how the electoral outcome had freed people’s tongues and thoughts. “I increasingly hear and read in various contexts that the Catholic Church is accused of silence.” Too often, pro-government and uncritical voices had drowned out more independent and free opinions, making it difficult to perceive the true opinion of the people of God.
In his view, the Church leadership has lost touch with reality, and we will pay the consequences. We must return to “giving voice to those who have been silenced and invite those who have been artificially amplified to adapt to the harmony of the choir, to pay attention to others.”
He adds: “I am not afraid, but I am worried. Not for our Church but for ourselves. We have reached a time when honesty, contrition, humility and meekness are essential.”
György Heidl questions the effectiveness of the institutional apparatus entrusted to the Church: “The state has handed over to the Churches numerous educational institutions, from nurseries to universities; two compulsory weekly religion lessons have been introduced in public schools. With what results?” Almost non-existent, from what he has been able to observe. All the more so given that the explosion of cases of clerical abuse has profoundly damaged the institution’s credibility.
He recalls that in 2025 the Catholic and Reformed Churches received five billion florins from the state, and that institutional growth creates the false impression of the effectiveness of proclamation, while consolidating the Church’s dependence on political power.
The case of the ministry of education
Emblematic of the moment is the choice regarding the ministry of education. For days, the appointment of Rita Rubovszky was considered certain. A Catholic, she headed an important Catholic educational institution (the Patrona Hungariae Centre), then directed the Cistercian schools group and was chosen by Cardinal Péter Erdő for the Catholic movement “seventy-two disciples.” As the daughter of the director of the Hungarian Democratic Forum, Rubovszky would have represented the Catholic world in the new government, sending a signal of reconciliation.
However, owing to fierce opposition from intransigent Catholics who branded her a traitor, and to opposition from secular circles, she was passed over in favor of Judit Lannert, an expert in public education and sharply critical of Church-run schools for their distance from the needs of the most vulnerable sections of the school population and for the undue privileges they have enjoyed in recent decades.
Péter Magyar, in light of the mandate he received, has asked several national authorities to resign due to their organic ties with Viktor Orbán: from the President of the Republic to the Constitutional Court, from the competition authority to the media authority and the Prosecutor General. He has announced trips to Poland, Vienna and then Brussels.
An Austrian commentator, Kurt Seinitz — who was the first to denounce Orbán’s illiberal democracy — sounds a note of caution regarding the new government: Magyar is taking power in a country poisoned by corruption, corrosive cynicism and deep polarization, while state coffers are empty and the crisis is biting hard into household finances. Alliance with the European Union will be necessary. One hopes it will also be sincere.
Ungheria-Chiesa: l’imbarazzato silenzio - SettimanaNews