This article comes from the Hungarian outlet Magyar Jelen. interview by Tamás Horváth. English translation by Google translate.
On the occasion of Christmas, we made a big interview with Dr. Gyula Márfi, archbishop emeritus of Veszprém, who – since he was forced to leave the city of the kings in August – spends the holidays in Szombathely again after many years. Among other things, the 79-year-old retired bishop talks about the mission of the Hungarians; about the European Union denying its Christian roots; on migration; on the cooperation of Freemasons and Muslims; about the Kalergi plan; on the unconstitutional Hungarian abortion law; he talked about LGBTQ and how what is going on in the German Catholic Church is practically anti-Christ. He also expressed his opinion on the renovation of the cathedral in Veszprém; he recalled the Christmases of his childhood; and he also told me when he decided to enter the church. The big interview of Tamás Horváth.
– After how many years do you spend Christmas again in Szombathely?
“ Twenty-seven. ” In 1995 I moved from Szombathely to Eger, where I was an auxiliary bishop for two years, and in 1997 I was appointed Archbishop of Veszprém by Saint II. Pope John Paul. I retired in 2019, but as archbishop emeritus I continued to live in the city of queens – until this August, when I unfortunately had to leave for known reasons.
But I’m not complaining, I have a very good place in Szombathely. Bishop Székely welcomed me with friendship.
– What does Christmas mean to you? What childhood memories do you have, how did you and your family celebrate the birth of Christ?
– I come from a religious family, we lived in a small village in Zala County, Pördefölde. As far as I know, it currently has 81 inhabitants, at that time it was not much more. The nearest church was in the neighboring settlement, Páka – five kilometers as the crow flies – but we still went to mass every Sunday.
However – perhaps for understandable reasons – we did not go to Advent morning mass, so I only attended rorata for the first time when I was in the seventh grade, when I moved to Páka to complete the last two classes of elementary school.
Anyway, I have very good and defining memories of Christmas, I think back with a warm heart to the times when my parents and brother and I celebrated as a family.
– How was it different to experience Christmas under socialism than later, after the system change?
– The intensity of the celebration did not change much after 1989, because even then Christmas was very important to us. We knew that the state did not sympathize with the churches, if it could, it would eliminate all religions. Because of this, my parents insisted even more on Christianity and its holidays. My brother and I were raised to do the same, which resulted in:
we both lived the Catholic faith wholeheartedly.
However, later, when I was in the seventh or eighth grade, when I started to grow up, the question arose in me, whether the atheists are right?
I didn’t dare to bring up these fears to my parents – who were smart but uneducated peasants – and not to the priests either, so I started formulating various arguments about God. I tried to prove that Jesus is not just a holy idea, but a tangible reality. It is not just a myth as atheists teach.
Perhaps this is precisely why I developed a kind of creativity that would not have happened if there were people around me who would answer all my questions. And let’s not forget that we lived in an atheistic system, so as Christians we had to look behind things and think. There is good in every bad, as they say.
– When did you first realize that you wanted to be a priest?
“ About when I was in seventh or eighth grade. ” As I listened to the sermons of the spiritual fathers, I wondered if I could speak like that, could I also say Mass so beautifully? After that, my profession gradually developed.
In a strange way, the problem was that my brother also became a priest, and at one time I felt that I had no vocation of my own, that I was following my brother because I was independent.
Then when it dawned on me that there were also relatives among Jesus’ apostles – Peter and András, James and John must have been close brothers; and the younger Jakab and Tádé Júdás are probably brothers or cousins - then I was reassured that I could have the same profession as my brother.
Why God chooses two is his secret.
“ Was there a time when he wavered?”
“ Not really. ” It can be said that, apart from the aforementioned adolescent uncertainty and doubts, my path was a straight line, a steady path to the altar. There were no deviations in it.
The possibility of leaving the seminary never occurred to me. I went to high school in Pannonhalma, and my profession only got stronger there.
“ Let’s go back to Christmas a bit. ” In his previous writings and interviews, he quite often criticized the current European Union and the zeitgeist prevailing in the Western world. How do you see Christmas in Europe in 2022?
“ I can’t judge this exactly, because I don’t know the conditions that well.” However, from what I hear and read, the situation seems catastrophic. In many places, they try to make people forget the word Christmas itself, and they only talk about holidays.
The Christmas tree was already removed from the Brussels City Hall 8-10 years ago, on the grounds that they did not want to offend the sensibilities of Muslims.
However, this is a lie: Christmas trees are also erected in Istanbul and in other parts of the Islamic world. Jesus as a prophet is also respected by Muslims, and according to Islam, it is not a sin to celebrate someone’s birthday.
One of the most striking signs of the European Union’s anti-Christianity is that its constitution did not mention Europe’s Christian roots. They write about Greco-Roman traditions and the Enlightenment, but not about Christianity. Yet ancient culture and art survived thanks to Christians: the writings of Virgil, Tacitus, Homer and others were copied by monks in the depths of their cells.
Without Christianity, we would not be able to read many ancient authors today.
But we can also talk about the fact that the European Commission published a calendar in 2016 in which the holidays of the world’s major religions were entered – even the Sikh religion, which is a relatively small community, a mixed religion between Hinduism and Islam. However, if you turn to December 25, what do you find? Practically nothing. That’s all it says: “A good friend shares your joys and your preoccupations.” I don’t know what this means exactly, but I do know that Christmas was deliberately left out of the significant days.
Let me mention two more examples. A few years ago, in England – which is no longer the EU, but undoubtedly part of the Christian European cultural circle – the Anglican Church wanted to sell a short film of a few minutes promoting Christianity to the national TV channels. None of them accepted.
XVI. At that time, Pope Benedict was not allowed to perform at the State University of Rome, saying that it was not a church, but a secular institution.
So what? I ask. If we were to think like that, then no one would be able to enter St. Peter’s Basilica, only those who can prove that they have been baptized and confirmed.
– Do you think it is conscious that in Europe they want to push Christianity into the background, ad absurdum to destroy it?
“ He’s conscious. ” The goal of the Freemasons is to “liberate” Europe from Christianity. To achieve this, they are willing to use all means, using their lobbying power they have also wormed their way into the leaders of the union.
In my opinion, Muslims are also being called in to remove Christ and Christianity from Europe. In doing so, however, they ultimately destroy themselves, because Islam will never accept their liberal principles.
It is practically the same situation as it was in the Savior’s time, when the scribes and Pharisees collaborated with their mortal enemy, Pontius Pilate, to get Jesus out of the way.
Today, Freemasons and Muslims are joining forces to make Christianity disappear from Europe.
But this is not a finished game yet, I hope that their plan will not be successful.
– What can we Hungarians do to protect Christianity?
“ We have to hold on to our faith very strongly. ” Padre Pio has a prediction that Hungary is a cage from which a beautiful bird will fly out, bringing blessings to the whole world.
I don’t think it’s out of the question that this will happen.
Not because we Hungarians are better than everyone else, but because God often chooses the little ones to accomplish something big through them.
See, the Guadeloupe seer Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin was also a simple Indian peasant. He was baptized with his wife only four years before he had his vision. At first the bishop didn’t believe him either, saying that Our Lady would certainly not appear to such an unfortunate shepherd, but at least to a nun. ( laughs )
And in Fatima and Lourdes, small children had visions of the Virgin Mary, so it cannot be ruled out that we, Hungarians, will also have a role in preserving Christianity in Europe. But for this we have to take faith seriously, because it is possible to become unworthy of any mission.
– Christian Europe can also be protected with physical means, for example by not allowing those who come to our borders illegally. When, during the migration crisis of 2015, the Hungarian government started to build the border fence (which László Toroczkai – then as the mayor of Ásotthalom – had advocated years earlier), both domestic and foreign liberals shouted that building walls was not humane, and anyway a self-professed Christian accepts everyone. What does an archbishop say about this?
– At the time, I had a rather harsh sentence for this: we must love wolves too – since they too were created by the Good Lord – but not in sheep’s clothing.
The same is true for Muslims. We love them and support their countries as much as we can.
However, this does not mean that we should invite them into Europe and let them Islamize the continent.
They were here in Hungary for 150 years, we know how much destruction they caused. We Hungarians still carry the memory of this in our genes to some extent.
– In your opinion, what poses a greater threat to Europe and Hungary at the moment: Islamization and immigration, or LGBTQ and woke?
– This is difficult to decide, but if a sequence must be established, it is the latter. This loose understanding brackets the foundations of Catholic morality.
And although as Christians we should not condemn homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals, or transgender people,
creating a cult for them is a mortal sin, which also goes against the laws of nature.
The legalization of same-sex “marriage” is also considered a capital crime, and I regret to see that it has already happened in most European countries.
In relation to the LGBTQ issue, we cannot forget the rights of children either. On the one hand, they should not be allowed to be confused about their gender identity and orientation through the media, advertising and education, and on the other hand, they have the right to a mother and a father.
– According to Catholic teaching, abortion is also a mortal sin, and although the Basic Law in Hungary already protects the fetus from conception, our abortion law is considered liberal even in European terms. Don’t you think this is controversial?
“ Of course. “
The current abortion law is unconstitutional, but the Constitutional Court has not yet dared to say so.
The problem is that the majority of the Hungarian people are pro-abortion, so if the government tightened it, it would lose the election.
However, it is welcome that mothers now have to listen to their child’s heartbeat. The ultra-liberals protested vehemently against this as well, so the government is not in an easy situation.
– On the other hand, I see that the heart rate regulation was relatively easily “swallowed” by people. It is true that there was a little excitement, but it did not start a serious avalanche. Is it not possible that after a while the Hungarian society would come to terms with the tightening of abortion?
“ It’s possible that he would come to terms with time, yes. ” I pray that it will be so. Also, for my part, I also offer the crosses of old age. I know many of my colleagues do the same.
– You obviously represent the teachings of the Catholic Church in the social topics we have discussed so far. How is it possible that, say, the German Catholic Church, which also belongs to the Pope of Rome, preaches the exact opposite of the ideas you express, for example, on the issue of LGBTQ?
“ I don’t understand that either, it can’t be proven. “
Five or six years before that, I said three masses in Hungarian for Hungarians in and around Stuttgart. I explained the arguments that prove the resurrection of Jesus, and I talked a little about heaven and the similes found in the Bible. After one of the Masses, Father Tempfli, the then Hungarian pastor in Stuttgart, came to me and thanked me for touching on these topics, saying that no one in Germany talks about them anymore.
The situation of the German church is truly catastrophic. According to them, it is not important whether Jesus was really born or not, the point is that “he should be born in you!”. Don’t ask if he rose from the dead or not, “may he rise in you!”. Don’t care if there is heaven or not, the point is “create it around you!”
This is all absurd.
A significant number of German Catholic priests now bless same-sex marriages as well as cohabitation and cohabitation relationships.
This is no longer Christianity, it is anti-Christ.
Three years ago, Rome finally ruled that Catholic priests are forbidden to bless homosexual couples. At that time, I was still visited by a German newspaper, so I learned about the protest that the decision had caused among German Catholics.
It is very sad what is happening in Germany. I don’t want to hurt them, but somehow they always fall from one side of the horse to the other. They went from Hitler and National Socialism to cosmopolitan globalism. No more German, French, Hungarian, Italian, only European.
– If the national question has already been mentioned: it is an eternal dilemma, which is more important, national or religious affiliation?
– I am primarily a Catholic, but I also stick to my Hungarianness, without being a chauvinist.
I am Hungarian, but I also respect other peoples. In Europe, diversity is needed in addition to unity, but there is no need for multiculturalism!
They talk about mixing the different species according to the Kalergi plan. But I ask, what comes out of this? A mass of no color at most.
My painter friend Győző Somogyi – I am hitting my belly now – has twenty-five different colors and shades of paint. If you mix them all up, you won’t be able to paint a colorful picture.
In a multicultural, mixed society, the individual loses his own identity, sense of identity, culture, faith, language, practically everything. It becomes easy to manipulate, which is ideal for the big capitalists of the world, who want to turn the whole Earth into a huge collective farm, where there are no ethnic, national and religious identities, only obedient workers and consumers manufactured according to standards.
– We started our interview with the fact that you are spending Christmas again in Szombathely after twenty-seven years. The main reason for this was that he was critical of the renovation plans of the Veszprém cathedral, which is why he had to leave the city of the queens. How do you see the situation in Veszprém afterwards?
– I can only pray for the Diocese of Veszprém, for some kind of consensus to be formed between the faithful and the archbishop, for peace to be restored. I don’t hold grudges against anyone in my heart, but I would regret it if the stained glass window of St. Michael – which was made by Bertalan Badalik, the bishop exiled by the communists – disappeared from the cathedral in Veszprém.
Otherwise, I’ll say it again, I feel very comfortable in Szombathely, I previously worked in the bishop’s office here for seventeen years. I have good experiences with the city, but of course I won’t forget the ones in Veszprém either.
– What is your message to the Hungarians on the occasion of Christmas?
– I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year! I pray especially for our uncertain compatriots, for those who have not yet decided what to believe. I wish them to approach Christ and Christianity.
May God’s blessing help all Hungarians!
Ecclesiastical Freemasonry 