Monday, January 02, 2012

New Hungarian constitution: "terrifying"

New Catholic reports that the new Constitution [Fundamental Law] of Hungary went into force yesterday, and must be considered terrifying, considering the international media coverage it has garnered. Accordingly, he takes a look at its most distressing aspects:
[Preamble:]

God bless the Hungarians
...
We are proud that our king Saint Stephen built the Hungarian State on solid ground and made our country a part of Christian Europe one thousand years ago.
...
We recognise the role of Christianity in preserving nationhood. We value the various religious traditions of our country.
...
We do not recognise the suspension of our historical constitution due to foreign occupations. We deny any statute of limitations for the inhuman crimes committed against the Hungarian nation and its citizens under the National Socialist and Communist dictatorships.

We do not recognise the Communist constitution of 1949, since it was the basis for tyrannical rule; therefore we proclaim it to be invalid.
...
Article I
(1) Hungary shall protect the institution of marriage as the union of a man and a woman established by voluntary decision, and the family as the basis of the nation’s survival.
(2) Hungary shall encourage the commitment to have children.
...
FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY
...
Article II
Human dignity shall be inviolable. Every human being shall have the right to life and human dignity; embryonic and foetal life shall be subject to protection from the moment of conception.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isten áldjon! God bless those Magyars! Hubby's family is from Budapest.

Donna

Anonymous said...

Dear Perti,

Don't you read 'terrifying' from New Catholic as ironic? I don't think he means those elements to be terrifying. And the comments at the site are all very positive, as was yours here from Donna. Most of us think the pro-life aspects and mention of Christianity as positive. I myself am reading it next to Quas Primas, the Christ the King, encyclical, and Pius XII on the duties of the Catholic state, and wondering. It's sort of a half-religious freedom, half-religious state mishmash, and there are many economic details (for example, related to debt) that need discussed, in my view. I'm wondering if it's not the first radical Vatican II style response to the crisis. Honor Christianity as a historical reality and ecosecularism/liberalism/or I don't know what to call it in the present (but the word fascism does linger on the margins, dear fellow Catholic).

Anonymous Bosch said...

Of course New Catholic was being ironic, and that's how I took PP's interpretation of his post. Anyone who finds such national piety and devotion to virtue "terrifying" has completely lost all sense of orientation.