64 ÁRPÁD VON KLIMÓ
tive-integrist wing” of the Church; and (d) supporting Commu-
nist-friendly “positive forces.”
After the decision to allow a few representatives of the Church
to participate in the ecumenical council in Rome, the Department
for Agitation and Propaganda of the Hungarian Politburo wanted
to ensure that Bishop Hamvas was not traveling alone “in order to
prevent him from exercising the hostile pressure that we expect
from him. If more than one person will be allowed to travel, we
have to make sure that the reactionary wing of the bishops is iso-
lated.”41 The Communists were concerned that the Council would
publish a statement condemning communism or perhaps even in-
clude such a text in one of the official declarations.
To make sure that the “reactionaries” were isolated, the first
delegation to represent the Hungarian Catholic Church in Rome
consisted of only ten persons, including Bishop Hamvas and
Bishop Sándor Kovács of Szombathely as Council fathers. Mean-
while, the “reactionary” Bishop Shvoy was denied an exit permit.
Accompanying the two bishops was a whole delegation, of which
all but two of its members are confirmed as having reported to
the state security agency: Pál Brezanóczy (codename “Pál Kékes”)
and Kálmán Papp, as theological consultants; Miklós Esty (“Pat-
kay”), the lay president of the Saint Stephen Society, and Rev. Ist-
ván Hamvas (“Kecskeméti”) as attendants; the journalist Víd Mi-
helics (“Béla Molnár”), editor of the Catholic monthly Vigília; and
the three theologians Polikárp Radó, László Semptey (“Hivő”),
and Imre Timkó (“János Kiss”).42
We now know most of the secret-police aliases of this first
Hungarian delegation, and we have access to the reports that they
- Quoted in Szabó, A Szentszék és a Magyar Népköztársaság kapcsolatai a hat-
vanas években, 22. - Bishop Kovács studied theology in Vác and Vienna and was ordained in
- In March 1944, he became bishop of Szombathely and saved Jewish refugees;
Bottoni, “Special Relationship.” The list of participants is in Fejérdy, Magyarország és
a II. Vatikáni Zsinat, 218–21.