CATHOLIC CHURCH DISCRIMINATED

Bishop András Veres, Secretary of the Conference of Catholic Bishops claims the government plans endanger the existence of Catholic schools and social institutions.

He blames the government for its restrictions planned to be introduced in a dictatorial way. These measures menace the legal security of the churches as the different normatives given by the state depend on assessments and the Hungarian churches expect an addional sum of HUF 1.9 billion instead of the 112 million offered by the state to subsidize church institutions. ’It seems the Minister of Equal Opportunities managed to realize her plans to prevent the churches from gaining more grounds’, he put it. The Ministry of Education has denied the fact of any discrimination in a statement but they would not answer the question whether they find it justified to subsidize self-goverment schools and institutions counterbalancing the reduction of basic normatives while in the case of church schools and institutions this option is refused.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó