There Are No Words More Fitting Than Those of Thanksgiving

To mark the day of St. John of Capistrano and the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1956 Revolution, a Mass was held on October 22 in the early evening hours in the Holy Spirit Church of Herminamező, Budapest. Defence Minister Dr. Csaba Hende and Dr. Ferenc Papcsák, the mayor of the district also attended the event where Father András Pajor, the parson of the church celebrated Mass.

Organized by the Christian Cultural Academy, the commemoration continued at the Árpád Cross in the yard of the congregation house of the church after the Mass, where Rev. András Pajor noted that there were three dates inscribed on the Cross standing on the coat of arms of the Sacred Crown above the three hills. The first is the date of the Hungarian Conquest, the second is that of issuing the Golden Bull which is Hungary’s first constitution, while the third one is 2010, the year of a new beginning.

‘Today we have come together here to stand before the Lord to give thanks to Him and to remember. We are here to remember the fight that was fought by the entire nation against the rule of violence and lies. We are here to give thanks for our heroes who were able to step over their shadow, the shadow that always falls on those walking through the valley of death and nails them to the ground’, this was how Dr. Csaba Hende started his ceremonial speech delivered in front of the Árpád Cross.

The Defence Minister went on saying that ‘today we have come together here to give thanks for freedom that our ancestors could secure only for a few days. Through their sacrifice, they have added a tremendous value to this freedom. They were fighting for this immensely valuable freedom that we inherit from them and must pass on. On October 23 there are no words more fitting than those of thanksgiving.’

Dr. Csaba Hende noted that Hungary had been in the grip of a worldwide delusion, in an age when a cruel and violent dictatorship – one that Hungary had never seen before – was striving to instill this delusion into the people’s minds. The socialists depicted religion, faith and honesty as ridiculous follies in an attempt to impose on the people their thought experiment which was incompatible with real life and to present it as the one and only right solution. They promised economic prosperity, but Hungary experienced a period of unprecedented poverty and famine. ‘The secret of the wonder of 1956 is that after many years of brutal suppression people started to espouse freedom, one of the age-old ideals’, the Minister stressed, adding that ‘they were only doing what was right and good’.

‘The congregation here in Kassai Square has done a lot to keep freedom and truth alive. This church, whose tower was damaged in those days, remains an eternal witness to that fight, the Defence Minister said, and then went on speaking about the need for letting the truth of 1956 infuse our lives. ‘Over the past few months Hungary entered a new era of hope. I promise you that we will do our best to prove worthy of the truth of the 1956 Revolution! Written and unwritten new laws have been and are being enacted which will establish the framework for a more just Hungary, a country where we are paying attention to each other, never letting anyone down; a country where we all have something to do with each other, where we can join forces in furthering important and good causes’, Dr. Csaba Hende said.

In his ceremonial speech the Defence Minister noted that there have been very many examples of joining forces over the last few months in Hungary, and pointed to the enormous efforts in the wake of the industrial disaster at Devecser and Kolontár whose scale defied imagination. It is no exaggeration to say that a whole country swung into action to help the people in trouble. The personnel of the Hungarian Defence Forces were alerted in 22 minutes after the disaster had struck, and 90 minutes later all the troops were mobilized for the disaster relief operation. ‘The determination I saw in the faces of the soldiers and the enthusiasm I experienced while watching their work recalled the golden age of our nation’, Dr. Csaba Hende said.

The Defence Minister concluded his ceremonial speech by stressing that freedom has been the heritage of 1956, and our task is to let this freedom infuse our lives.
The event continued with a wreath-laying ceremony at the 1956 memorial, and finished with the joint singing of the Szózat (second national anthem).

Text: László Szűcs
Photo: Mária Krasznai-Nehrebeczky