62 ÁRPÁD VON KLIMÓ
the decision about who could travel to Rome also depended on
the Hungarian State Office of Church Affairs, which granted or
denied exit permits.32
On June 12, 1962, the Politburo of the Hungarian Socialist
Workers’ Party debated whether or not to allow the participation
of the Hungarian Catholic Church at the Second Vatican Council,
to begin only four months later in Rome.33 The Hungarian com-
rades were nervous about their image in the Communist Bloc, so
they waited for the opinions of party leaders from other coun-
tries. Finally, in August, both the Soviet and the Polish Politburo
informed their Hungarian counterparts that they supported the
idea of having a Hungarian delegation present at the Council.34
Since 1958, the Communist leadership—especially in the State
Office of Church Affairs—had nervously observed the change in
the Vatican’s tone under John XXIII regarding the Church’s rela-
tionship to Communist countries. The new pope was interested in
developing more constructive diplomatic relations with the East-
ern Bloc and in contributing to the easing of tensions between
the superpowers. Pope Roncalli made this clear with his encyclical
Pacem in terris (1963), released only a few months after the Cuban
Missile Crisis, which had almost led to nuclear war.35 Addressing
this letter not only to Catholic believers, but to all “men of good
will,”36 Pope John XXIII distinguished between errors (like Marx-
ism and materialism) and the person who errs, reaching out to all
believers and nonbelievers of “good will.”37
- Hamvas, response to Shvoy, August 18, 1962, in Szabó, A Szentszék és a Mag-
yar Népköztársaság kapcsolatai a hatvanas években, 59. - Szabó, A Szentszék és a Magyar Népköztársaság kapcsolatai a hatvanas évek-
ben, 21. - Ibid., 22.
- See chapter 1, by Gerald P. Fogarty, in this volume.
- Peter Steinfels, Pacem in terris Lecture Series Inaugural Lecture, Georgetown
University, October 10, 2003, at http://www.georgetown.edu/content/1242663589823
.html; accessed April 29, 2014. - “It is always perfectly justifiable to distinguish between error as such and the