Red Clerics Visit U.S.
FABIAN, BELA
Red Clerics Visit U. S. By Bela Fabian The Hungarian churchmen invited to the World Council of Churches convention are Communist Quislings who do not represent Protestants in their country The...
...for example, have been boycotted...
...The leaders of the Lutheran Church proved even more of a problem...
...The present leaders of Hungarian Protestantism have won no real favors for their churches by cringing before the regime...
...Isn't it folly, then, to resist us...
...The postwar Communist regime quickly turned its efforts to breaking the resistance of the Protestants...
...Members of the Protestant youth organization, Soli Deo Gloria, risked their lives saving victims from Nazi execution squads...
...The chinch services of Bishop Janos Peter in Debreezen...
...Lajos Veto, a Lutheran bishop...
...His place was taken by Albert Bereczky, and the Calvinist Reformed Church became a Communist weapon against the other Hungarian churches...
...Reports from Hungary indicate that this same Janos Peter, who is soon to represent Hungarian Calvin-ists at the Evanston convention, is not only a member of the Communist party but a secret-police agent...
...They are coming to America to pursue four vital aims of Soviet policy: ?To achieve unification of all Orthodox churches with the aid of the World Council of Churches—the Hungarian Protestant Church serving, as Laszlo Papp expressed it last February, as "the connecting link between East and West...
...These four men do not represent Hungarian Protestantism...
...It is now clear that Peter was planted by the Communists to spy on Tildy and report on his activities...
...They are minions of the Communist regime in Budapest, men who are willingly furthering the Kremlin's overall design for subjugating the churches of Eastern Europe...
...Ravasz stepped down as bishop...
...Don't count on aid from the Americans," the Communists are warning...
...Bishop Lajos Ordas and the Moderator of the Church, Albert Radvanszky, resisted every kind of pressure...
...After the war, he served as private secretary to the Rev...
...Since the Berlin and Geneva conferences, morale among the peoples behind the Iron Curtain has sunk to an all-time low, and Communist propaganda is exploiting this despair...
...To utilize the World Council of Churches for Communist "peace" propaganda...
...To create the impression that religious freedom exists in the Soviet orbit...
...Finally, the regime charged the two with black-marketeering and sent them to jail...
...Red Clerics Visit U. S. By Bela Fabian The Hungarian churchmen invited to the World Council of Churches convention are Communist Quislings who do not represent Protestants in their country The World Council of Churches is to hold its convention next month in Evanston, Illinois...
...Nevertheless, the bulk of Hungarian Protestants have refused to follow their leaders in submission to the Communists...
...They are interested only in saving their own skins...
...Among those invited to participate are four Hungarian churchmen: Albert Be-reczky and Janos Peter, bishops of the Calvinist Church...
...The Unitarian Church submitted without a fight...
...In the past, the Hungarian Protestant churches have been standard-beavers of freedom, and many Protestant preachers have died in defense of their faith...
...To prevent the establishment of an interdenominational front of Catholics, Protestants and Jews against Communism...
...After the Communists had threatened to throw him in jail, deport his family and cut off the salaries of all Calvinist parochial-school teachers...
...Before long, the mighty Soviet Union will rule the world...
...During World War II, Calvinist Bishop Laszlo Ravasz, Lutheran Bishop Bela Kapi and Unitarian Bishop Miklos Jozan took a strong stand against Nazi inhumanity...
...Zoltan Tildy, a weakling whom the Communists later made President of the Hungarian "People's Republic...
...and Laszlo Papp, a Calvinist minister and Dean of the Budapest Theological Seminary...
...A new leadership has been installed which dutifully follows Communist orders...
...By welcoming Communist Quislings to this country as the representatives of Hungarian Protestantism, the World Council of Churches is striking yet another blow at the spirit of resistance of the enslaved peoples of Eastern Europe...
...Their first notable victim was Bishop Ravasz...
...The Protestant press is enslaved, religious schools are closed or rigidly supervised, and the Communist party is drawing away the youth...
Vol. 37 • July 1954 • No. 30
