Hungarian bishops urge against ‘hasty opinions’ amid clergy names in Soviet secret police files

Hungary’s Catholic bishops are urging the faithful to not rush to judgment after the publication of files showing that some of the country’s Catholic leaders collaborated with secret police during the Soviet era.

The country existed as a satellite state of the Soviet Union after World War II and was controlled by communists as the Hungarian People’s Republic from 1949 to 1989. As was common with communist states, the government utilized a secret police service to spy on and control citizens there.

Current Prime Minister Péter Magyar officially opened the government’s secret police archives on Nov. 4, describing the release as “long overdue.” The files contain about 60,000 names of secret police informants.

In a statement after the release of the files , the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Hungary acknowledged that the list included names of “individuals affiliated with the Church." Among the names are those of Cardinal László Paskai and Archbishop István Seregély.

The Hungarian bishops urged the faithful to “not … lose sight of the bigger picture.” They noted that the Church in communist-controlled Hungary was subject to severe persecution, including the murder of dozens…