THE GOVERMENT’S CHURCH POLICY CONCEPT READY

The government’s church policy concept will come into force probably this year. Its basic tenets have been made recently by experts commissioned by the Prime Minister’s Office.

The text is handled as a draft and has been entitled ’Free church in a free state’, referring to Ferenc Deák, a great liberal politician of the 19th century whose great achievement was the Compromise of 1867 between Austria and Hungary. The draft wishes to depolitize the relationship between church and state. The government has to grant the rights fixed in the constitution and wishes to finance churches without discrimination, making their registration easier and their legal background and finances predictable. Kálmán Gulyás, state secretary of church affairs told Magyar Nemzet they did not want to alter the system of personal income taxes 1 pc of which could be offered for the churches.
Lajos Bokros, Minister of Finance of the Horn government said in a conference ’churches have to contend for the faithful’ otherwise it could not be decided in what proportion they got their financial support.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó