The government does not wish to disclose whether PM Ferenc Gyurcsány insists on transferring the state secretariat dealing with church affairs from the Chancellery to the Ministry of National Cultural Heritage in spite of the disapproval of the historical churches. In this way they leave the churches and the state secretary himself in uncertainty. Bishop András Veres, secretary of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference said they had not received any official information but the Chancellery was a better place than the Ministry of Culture because the tasks of coordination usually needed the decision of several ministries. Bishop Veres found it curious that the new government programme did not even mention the historical churches, not even in the context of their institutions doing public utility work. Gusztáv Zoltai, managing director of the union of Jewish communities in Hungary agreed with the first reactions of the other historical churches while István Szabó, Bishop of the Reformed Church said it was possible there was only a personal cause behind the change but it could also be the sign of a new church policy.
Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó
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