the Catholic Church.52 The Communist state also made sure that
most of the Council’s documents were not published in Hungar-
ian until 1975.53
The final part of this chapter will sum up what has been stud-
ied so far with regard to changes in Church administration, theol-
ogy, and practice. It will also look at a different aspect of Hungar-
ian Catholicism during the time of the Second Vatican Council:
the independent Catholic and—later—ecumenical “base commu-
nities” and their interpretation of the Second Vatican Council.
After the Council: What Did the Council
Change in Hungary?
Some critical theologians have expressed the opinion that the
dictatorship, with the support of a puppet Church, systematical-
ly blocked the application of the reforms of the Second Vatican
Council in Hungary.54 This critique is a bit overstated, exaggerat-
- Stefano Bottoni writes, “It was during the II Vatican Council that the Hun-
garian intelligence officers, learning from their errors, laid the foundations for fur-
ther operative work against the Vatican”; Bottoni, “Special Relationship,” 155. - This is a list of what had been published: Rendelkezés a szent liturgáról [Dis-
position on the Holy Liturgy], 1964; Határozat a világiak apostolkodásáról [Resolution
on the Lay Apolostolate], 1966; A püspök pásztori tisztségéről [On the Pastoral Office
of the Bishops], 1967; Az isteni kinyilatkoztatásról [On the Manifestation of God],
1967; A papság képzéséről [On the Education of the Priesthood], 1967; A keresztény
egységre törekvésről [On the Efforts of Christian Unity], 1967; Az Egyház viszonya a
nemkeresztény vallásokhoz [The Church Confronts the Non-Christian Religions],
1967; Lelkipásztori rendelkezések az Egyházról a mai világban [Pastoral Directions for
the Church in Today’s World], 1967. See Károly Mészáros, Konkordancia a II. Vatikáni
Zsinát dokumentumaiból (Budapest: Szent István Társulat, 1971); József Cserháti and
Árpád Fábián, eds., A Vatikáni Zsinat tanítása: A zsinati dokumentumok, (1975; 2nd ed.
Budapest: Szent István Társulat, 1977). - Andreas [András] Szennay, “Kirche in Ungarn,” Theologisch-praktische Quar-
talschrift 139, no. 2 (1991): 128–33; Johannes Gönner, Die Stunde der Wahrheit: Eine
pastoraltheologische Bilanz der Auseinandersetzungen zwischen den Kirchen und dem
kommunistischen System in Polen, der DDR, der Tschechoslowakei und Ungarn (New
VATICAN II AND HUNGARY 69