Pope Francis reminded the Hungarian bishops that the history of the Church of Hungary is “marked by an unshakeable faith, by persecutions and by the blood of martyrs, it is associated in a special way with the sacrifice of Christ.”

After meeting with the President of Hungary and the Prime Minister of the country, the Holy Father went to the Renaissance Room of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest for a meeting with the Bishops of Hungary this morning, September 12, 2021.

The Hungarian Episcopal Conference, Magyar Katolikus Püspöki Konferencia (MKPK), brings together the bishops of the 17 ecclesiastical circumscriptions of Hungary (14 of the Latin rite and 3 of the Byzantine rite), together with the military ordinary and the abbot of Pannonhalma. Its current president is Mgr. András Veres, bishop of Győr, the vice-president is Mgr. György Udvard, archbishop of Veszprém, while the general secretary is Dr. Tamás Tóth. The MKPK is a member of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE).

Guard the past and look to the future

“Looking at that past history, made of martyrdom and bloodshed, we can move towards the future with the same desire as the martyrs: to live charity and bear witness to the Gospel. However, we must always keep together, in the life of the Church, these two realities:  guarding the past and looking to the future ”, the Pontiff indicated in his words.

“Many brothers and sisters, many bishops and priests lived what they celebrated at the altar; they were crushed like grains of wheat so that all could be nourished by the love of God; they were pressed like grapes so that the blood of Christ became the sap of new life; they were broken like bread, but their love offering was an evangelical seed of rebirth planted in the history of this town ”, explained the Successor of Peter.

Likewise, he reminded the prelates that the episcopal ministry “does not serve to repeat news from the past, but rather is the prophetic voice of the perennial relevance of the Gospel in the life of the Holy People of God and in today’s history.” To fulfill this mission, the Bishop of Rome proposed to the Hungarian bishops “some indications to carry out this mission”: to be heralds of the Gospel, to be witnesses of brotherhood, and to be builders of hope.