Hun­gar­i­an gov­ern­ment to fund ren­o­va­tion of near­ly 300 church­es in Transylvania

An exten­sive ren­o­va­tion pro­gram for church­es through­out the Carpathi­an basin was announced by the Hun­gar­i­an gov­ern­ment, guar­an­tee­ing the renew­al of 400 church­es. Among the ben­e­fi­cia­ries are 262 Tran­syl­van­ian church­es in over 200 loca­tions, announced Mik­lós Soltész, the Sec­re­tary of State for Church­es, Minori­ties and Civ­il Affairs.

The sec­re­tary attend­ed in a meet­ing in Nagyvárad/Oradea with the lead­ers of his­toric Hun­gar­i­an church­es; Bar­na Tánc­zos, Min­is­ter of Envi­ron­ment, Water and Forests and mem­ber of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Alliance of Hun­gar­i­ans in Roma­nia (known by its Hun­gar­i­an acronym of RMDSZ); Ödön Szabó, RMDSZ mem­ber of par­lia­ment; and Zsolt Matuz, State Sec­re­tary of the Min­istry of Devel­op­ment, Pub­lic Works and Administration.

Mik­lós Soltész stat­ed that he con­sid­ers it to be very impor­tant that the com­mu­ni­ties sup­port one anoth­er and that the Hun­gar­i­an gov­ern­ment makes it a pri­or­i­ty to strength­en the his­toric church­es of Hun­gar­i­an com­mu­ni­ties at a time when the exis­tence of Chris­tian­i­ty is fac­ing seri­ous chal­lenges. He added that the fund­ing also helps entre­pre­neurs who are spe­cial­ized in the ren­o­va­tion of church­es. The com­plete bud­get of the pro­gram is close to HUF 3.5 bil­lion and will allow for rapid inter­ven­tion and ren­o­va­tion of church­es in need of work.

Bar­na Tánc­zos expressed his plea­sure with this lat­est round of assis­tance for Tran­syl­van­ian Hun­gar­i­ans, fol­low­ing the Hun­gar­i­an gov­ern­ment pro­grams for build­ing kinder­gartens and nurs­ery schools and for sup­port­ing sports and cul­ture. The RMDSZ min­is­ter found it crit­i­cal that fund­ing is used in the most effec­tive way pos­si­ble to ensure the sur­vival of Hun­gar­i­an cul­ture. The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Alliance of Hun­gar­i­ans in Roma­nia will also sup­port, as much as pos­si­ble, the strength­en­ing of Hungary’s his­tor­i­cal church­es in the region, he stated.

Gerge­ly Kovács, the Roman Catholic Arch­bish­op from Gyu­lafe­hérvár, expressed his appre­ci­a­tion for the sup­port, say­ing that the church feels that elect­ed lead­ers in both Roma­nia and Hun­gary are tak­ing a seri­ous stand for church­es and fam­i­lies dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time of the pan­dem­ic. He also said it is an impor­tant result that per the request of the arch­dio­cese of Gyu­lafe­hérvár/Al­ba-Iulia and with the medi­a­tion of RMDSZ, after hav­ing to forego it last year, the Roman­ian gov­ern­ment has allowed for the Csík­som­lyó Pil­grim­age to be organized.

Fea­tured pho­to: reformed church in Kőrösfő

Source: tran​syl​va​ni​anow​.com