Secular Hungary

Saturday, 10 April 2010

The bishop's wife files for divorce

Basically, this is of course a private issue, were it not for her husband, László Tőkés. Tőkés is a well known bishop of the reformed church, and a member of the European Parliament for Romania (he is a member of the Hungarian minority in Transsylvania), and he played an important role in the Romanian revolution in 1989. He is also well known for promoting "traditional family values" -- which he seems not to apply to himself, however, if we believe Edit Joó Tőkés, who allegedly has also written a letter to the head of the European Parliament complaining about the lifestyle of her husband, who did not handle discreetly his love affairs in Brussels and Strasbourg. Mrs Tőkés complained that her husband communicated with her and their three children through formal letters, and also required her to keep a record of any money spent - backing her accounts with receipts even for the smallest items. According to Romanian newspapers there was a scandal already in 1999, when Mrs Tőkés caught her husband having sex with his lover on his bishop's office desk.

In June 2008, Mr Tőkés attacked a Hungarian member of the European Parliament, Mrs Madga Kosáné Kovács in her absence, because a few weeks earlier she informed the parliament about church attempts to interfere in forthcoming legislation extending some rights to gay couples and dared to call the head of the European Commission, Mr Barroso to stand up for the principle of secular state and for European values. Mr Tőkés called Mrs Kosáné Kovács a postcommunist, stated that the true European values are protestant (he used the word 'keresztyén' referring to protestant christianism) and suggested the parliament to invite pope Benedict XVI. (It's not clear if Mr Tőkés knows that Benedict XVI. does not consider his church a true one.)

http://nol.hu/mozaik/tokes_laszlo_felesege_valni_akar__hutlensegrol_beszel
http://szekularisfigyelo.blog.hu/2008/06/20/a_katolikus_puspokok_tiltakoznak_a_jogi_vedelem_kiterjesztese_ellen

The Kósáné-Tőkés dispute: Mrs Kósáné Kovács: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20080519+ITEM-019+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN&query=INTERV&detail=1-049 and http://www.europarl.europa.eu/wps-europarl-internet/faces/vod/player.jsp?date=20080519 Mr Tőkés: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=CRE&reference=20080616&secondRef=ITEM-018&language=EN and http://www.europarl.europa.eu/wps-europarl-internet/faces/vod/player.jsp?session=last&currentSei=SEI1
As Mrs Kósáné Kovács was absent, her colleague replied, stating that Mr Tőkés's attack was inappropriate and disgusting: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/wps-europarl-internet/faces/vod/player.jsp?session=last&currentSei=SEI1