Secular Hungary

Saturday 22 August 2009

Choice of guest

Yesterday, Hungarians celebrated their national day. This traditionally includes a catholic procession, where the alleged, well-preserved hand of state founder king (Saint) Stephen I. is shown. This year, the head of Hungarian catholic, cardinal Péter Erdő invited the German cardinal Joachim Meisner to participate. In his home town, not everybody is happy with the cardinal, as he seems to enjoy provocation. He has called any non-figurative art not focussing on God "entartet" (the term the Nazi party used in the 1930s), he equated abortion with the holocaust, and already back in 1991 he said every non-Christian is a disdainful cannibal.