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  • Pressed by a Double Loyalty: Hungarian Attendance at the Second Vatican Council, 1959–1965 by András Fejérdy
  • Krisztina Tóth
Pressed by a Double Loyalty: Hungarian Attendance at the Second Vatican Council, 1959–1965. By András Fejérdy. (Budapest and New York: Central European University Press. 2017. Pp. 440. €52.00; $60.00. ISBN 978-963-386-142-4.)

Rarely are results of Hungarian historiography published in a foreign language.1 Thus, András Fejérdy's volume, which examines the attendance of the Hungarian bishops at the Second Vatican Council, is particularly worthy of notice as it examines their participation in the light of the Ostpolitik, relying heavily, as it does on Hungarian government archives. The volume is a slightly amplified version of Dr. Fejérdy's doctoral dissertation, which was published in 2011 in Hungarian. It can be rightly stated that this comprehensive overview is presented by an expert familiar with several aspects of this subject.

The title of the book itself is revealing. The Hungarian bishops allowed to travel to Rome had to satisfy two expectations. On the one hand, a positive report of the state of the Hungarian Church had to be relayed. In their Council interventions, subjects of special importance to the government had to be presented positively, as, for example, during the fourth period, the social and economic conditions in Hungary as well as the efforts of the Hungarian government toward progress and peace had to be especially stressed. This was also the case during the bishops' meetings at the Vatican. The Holy See above all awaited authentic and objective information on the restricted freedom of the Catholic Church in general and of the various dioceses in particular. Such accurate information and valid advice were to provide the basis for future negotiations. At home, the bishops were expected to suggest effective means to carry out the conciliar teachings. [End Page 153]

It is clear from the above few lines that the author did not strictly limit himself to the narration of the bishops' participation in the Council, but broadened his examination to the expectations of both the Holy See and the Hungarian Government for future contacts and negotiations. The presence of these members of the Hungarian hierarchy is particularly emphasized as Hungary was the first member of the socialist bloc to conclude in 1964 a secret agreement with the Holy See. However, it should not be forgotten, as the author points out, that the Vatican was holding parallel consultations with Czechoslovak bishops and Lithuanian priests.

The structure of the book is rational, being logically framed and easy to follow. On the one hand, it follows a chronological, on the other, a thematic thread. A separate section is dedicated to the preparatory phase of the Council, then to the Council itself, and finally to the reception of the Council's pronouncements. Each section is divided into three larger chapters, each presenting the opinions and the purposes of the Holy See, the Hungarian government, and the Hungarian Council Fathers. Hereinafter, I would like to enumerate the main viewpoints of these three groups.

By abandoning the policies of his predecessor, Pope St. John XXIII opened the dialogue with the Eastern Block. The ideological basis for this step can be found, among other places, in his Pacem in terris encyclical: "It is always perfectly justifiable to distinguish between error as such and the person who falls into error. …"2 He considered the attendance of the hierarchies from the Iron Curtain countries of primary importance so that firsthand information concerning the conditions of these Churches might be obtained. Hungary was among these, as contact was maintained only through the nunciature in Vienna, the Budapest embassies of other countries with Catholic traditions, and the 1959 Roman visit of Miklós Esty, former gentiluomo of Cardinal-Primates János Csernoch, Jusztinian Serédi, and József Mindszenty, as Nuncio Angelo Rotta had been expelled in April, 1945, by the temporary government at the command of the Soviet president of the Allied Control Committee.

The Holy See was ready even to compromise in order to re-establish contact with the Hungarian Church. The main items to be...

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