Exhibition text

Author: House of Terror Museum

Mária Schmidt: 
Ladies and Gentlemen, dear guests, thank you for coming.  Let me, please, call upon Zoltán Balogh to open our exhibition on behalf of the public foundation.

Zoltán Balogh: 
Your Excellency, Reverend Sirs, dear Guests!
With this exhibition we should like to erect a monument to a martyr here in the centre of Budapest.  The word „martyr” is a Greek word meaning „witness”.  There is a beautiful, early-Christian proverb, which says: „The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church”.  This proverb is sad and true at the same time.
Giving testimony, standing up for the truth found in faith, is never without consequences.  Sometimes these consequences are physical.  It is sad but there are martyrs, there is extinction.  Still, we believe that the spiritual consequence is more important, and that is the affirmation of faith.  This is the heritage of Áron Márton’s life-work.  This exhibition in the House of Terror Museum intends to bear witness to the WITNESS.  Because martyrdom and resistance turn into good seeds only if there is someone who bears witness to the testimony.  Today, there are some among us – and we salute them with special respect and love – who themselves went to prison and suffered persecution on account of their faith.  You are cordially welcome!  It is a great honour for us that you are here.  I would like to ask everyone to pass on what he or she has seen here.  Let us all be witnesses, since for the past year the strength of the building here at 60 Andrássy Street no longer resides in the dictatorship´s terror organization, but in the testimony of the witnesses.  
I would now like to ask His Excellency Cardinal István Seregély, President of the Bishop’s Conference to open the exhibition.
 
István Seregély:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Perhaps it would be more impressive if my opening speech were compiled from quotations taken from the writings of Áron Márton, Bishop of Transylvania.  Perhaps in these solemn moments you would expect me to emphasize the trials and tribulations of his life.  Yet what I am going to talk about is the mature man´s, the Christian’s, the bishop’s outlook on life, sanctified by God.
His biography has been written by several authors.  His writings - even if incompletely - have been catalogued repeatedly.  Those visiting the exhibition, who would like to discover more about the Transylvanian bishop, Áron Márton, will find all the information easily accessible.
As for myself, I always study with interest the saints and the candidates for canonization, whose lives provide a point of reference for all of us. 
Born in Csíkdomonkos in 1896, Áron Márton, who was ordained Bishop of Transylvanian by Pope Pius XI at Christmas of 1938, was one of those people from whom the Lord expected an inspiring – or might I say –an heroic way of life, best described by a quotation from Paul´s Letter to the Hebrews: „No one takes this honour upon himself; he must be called by God just as Aaron was” (Hebrews 5, 4).  God called Áron Márton and gave him the strength to become a man of conscience, a follower of Christ, and a bishop of the Church that is led by the Holy Spirit.  And that he became.  And we, human beings, Christians and priests, want to become like him.  
I am convinced that in this world created by God, the spirituality which carries forward this world was and is always shared by people who are acting as the followers of Jesus Christ.  I intentionally said „people” without being more specific, because those who do so, whether they know it or not, i.e. whether they are the followers of Christ in Faith, or the obedient wanderers on the several thousand other ways God has shown them, all lived and live a life in Jesus Christ.  
It is part of our history that in the fullness of time God revealed himself to the world in Jesus Christ as the most helpless of creatures: a newborn child, wanting in wealth and power.  Ever since then we, who have a similar start in life, know that only with this self-sacrificing spirituality and devotion to others can we become akin to the joyous and everlasting God in whose image we were all created.
This calling was Áron Márton’s fate, which he heroically fulfilled in that 20th century that was so very painful for us Hungarians.  As he was able to live according to Christ’s ideal of „being everything to everyone”, accepting the most testing of conditions, we are able to say today that not only his friends but even his enemies stand in awe before his greatness. 
That is why we – at any rate we, believers, Hungarian believers – are certain that only he is capable of doing this who, throwing himself completely on His mercy, lives his life in God and doesn’t abandon him in spite of inner and outer obstacles.  We dared to ask for his canonization because someone who has lived in this way for God, still lives with God and at the side of God.   
We, humans were cruel to Jesus Christ.  We crucified him.  He didn’t protest against it, neither did He take revenge for it.  Ever since then, if a Christlike attitude means total commitment, then the acid test of this is a likeness to the Crucified, which endures human injustice and cruelty, without ever expecting any rehabilitation and retribution.    
Áron Márton, Transylvanian bishop opposed humanity´s ever-threatening madness: war.  He defended the victims of racism, Europe´s eternal shame: racism.  He suffered the shackles of the dictatorship which was striving to annihilate religion.  (Granted, he lacked efficient means to combat any of these.)   Only by slander would it be possible to implicate him in these indefensibly dreadful things.  The merit of his life is that the cross he bore does not demand restitution from anyone. Like Christ, he dared and dares to put his life in the hands of the Just Judge, as the first Pope reminded the first Christians.
Can one endure all this on the basis of reason?  There is only one inspiration that has been leading the martyrs, victims, heroes and saints of God’s Church.  This inspiration is Jesus Christ’s Easter faith.  Jesus Christ handed himself over to the world unconditionally, and when our proud world mistreated Him, He repaid it by giving us the fullness of life experienced by His spirituality and the Gospel of Easter.  Since then we do not have to look for any other sources of strength for accepting a life devoted to people – even amidst serious difficulties – but Jesus Christ´s faith in people and the fulfilment of that hope.   
When you read Áron Márton’s writings, you can feel this timeless outlook on life behind his words.  Visiting this exhibition, it becomes even more important to consider that the ephemeral service of human life has been drawing and still draws its strength from this, ever since the empty tomb of Jesus Christ has become a part of this Planet Earth.   
I would like to close my speech with another observation.  The survival, prosperity and salvation of all nations depend on this way of life that follows the teaching of Jesus Christ.  Well, Áron Márton did this in Hungarian.  In Hungarian, true to those Hungarians of the past, who were or could have been canonized, or are candidates for canonization to whom we owe our European existence.  It is also true that our future derives from that as well.  And I accept Bishop Áron Márton as an inspiring and encouraging ideal.  Although as a bishop I cannot do so officially as yet, but as an individual I already ask for his intercession for my nation, for my thousand years old Christian homeland.  
I once again commend this exhibition to your attention. 
Thank you for your having listened to me. 

Zoltán Balogh:
Excellency, thank you for preaching the Gospel.  His Excellency, archbishop Jakubinyi, archbishop of Gyulafehérvár is currently on an ad limina visit in Rome, that is why he cannot be here, but Ferenc Potyó vicar general came to us and I would like to ask him to address us.

Ferenc Potyó:
Your Grace, Your Excellencies, Madame Director, Honoured Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen!

If a pantheon is ever erected to our nation´s twentieth-century greats, Áron Márton will be entitled to occupy one of its principal places. We can justly ask then – who is this man?

The third child of Ágoston Márton and Juliánna Kurkó, Áron Márton was born on August 28, 1896 in the village of Csíkszentdomokos. Csíkszentdomokos is located at the foot of the Eastern Carpathians, near the heads of the rivers Maros and Olt. He attended the local elementary school, pursuing his high school studies in Csíksomlyó as a scholarship student from 1907. In 1911 the ancient Csíksomlyó High School moved to Csíkszereda to a new building, which to this day bears the name of the great bishop. He finished his schooling in Gyulafehérvár and took his final exams on June 12, 1915. Three days later he was called up to military service. Despite all his efforts, Bishop Majláth could not get exemptions for high-school graduates who wanted to enter the priesthood. As he was boarding the train taking him to the front, his mother handed him a rosary. As an old man the bishop asserted that it was this that had saved his life. He served in several theatres of war. A stern and unswerving man, he could hold out to the bitter end. Undaunted in the face of danger, he was wounded four times. 

After his military service he spent a year and a half in his village. Although he had felt the calling to the priesthood already during his high-school years, he spent a long time grappling to find his way.

Venturing out of his inertia and inaction in 1920, he went to Brassó with a friend of his to become a turner and fitter. That is where he got a sobering slap in the face, in other words the final grace for his vocation. The Saxon manager of the factory rejected them because they were not of the same nationality. Personally and ethnically humiliated, he returned home with his mate, and after a night´s agonizing came to the realization that the Lord was calling him to another kind of work in the service of his people.

On October 11, 1920, somewhat belatedly he entered the Theological Seminary at Gyulafehérvár. His character and personality showed itself from the very first. Reports by his masters turned out to be prophetic documents: ˝Clearheaded, a substantial soul, a man of moral fibre, has great potential… The diocese can expect much from him.˝ During his holidays he helped his parents in their work – he never shied away from walking through his village with a scythe on his shoulder.

He was ordained on July 6, 1924 by Gusztáv Károly Majláth, Bishop of Transylvania. His first places of service were in Ditró and Gyergyószentmiklós, where he did a lot for young people, establishing cultural organizations. As a teacher of religious science in the Roman Catholic High School at Marosvásárhely, he was a great inspiration and a capable leader of his students. As superintendent of studies at the St. Theresa orphanage at Nagyszeben, he demonstrated his excellent qualifications as a pedagogue. At Nagyszeben he enhanced his knowledge of German and Romanian. In 1930 he was made episcopal archivist at Gyulafehérvár, and from the autumn of 1932 he entered his real sphere of operations, ministering to the spiritual needs of university students at Kolozsvár. Subsequently he became manager of the Roman Catholic League of Nations, and in 1936 was appointed to lead the parish of St. Michael at Kolozsvár. During this period he established a non-political, cultural and educational review entitled Erdélyi iskola (School in Transylvania), which he edited together with Dr. Lajos György.

On December 24, 1938 Pope Pius XI appointed the 42 year-old Áron Márton to the bishopric of Gyulafehérvár. Providence placed Áron Márton at the head of the Transylvanian diocese at the most critical time. With his level-headed and determined stance, his humanitarian personality, he became the mainstay of our bemused people. He said the following in his inaugural address of March 31, 1939: ˝My holy office obligates me to be equally bishop to the poor and the rich, the educated and those, who are cut off from the opportunity of education, the notables and the simple people, the fortunate and unfortunate, the sinners and the blessed.˝ When Northern Transylvania was returned to Hungary in 1940, Áron Márton chose to stay at his seat in Gyulafehérvár in the Romanian part, although the majority of his flock remained in Northern Transylvania. That is when he wrote: ˝We have to stand our ground. We mustn´t leave this land, it belongs to us. The blood and tears of our ancestors have softened the furrows here; their cherished remains lie mouldering under Transylvania´s hallowed soil. We are not strangers here, we feel at home here, even if this displeases some people.˝

Áron Márton looked after those members of his diocese too, who now belonged to Hungary. Arriving at Kolozsvár, he showed his mettle in being the first Hungarian public figure to speak up against the deportation of Jews from Hungary: on May 18, 1944, three days after the deportations started, he publicly condemned the actions of the Hungarian government while attending the consecration of new priests in St. Michael´s church. That is when, among others, he said: ˝We have followed with distress the measures taken of late against the Jews… however, our people´s Christian spirit instinctively protests when we see that the others´ human dignity is debased…˝ At the end of his oration he addressed his newly ordained priests:

˝My Dear Sons!... it is likely that I am ordaining you for martyrdom… But neither prison, nor human deference must deter us from carrying out the duties of our holy office. Persecution and prison are not a dishonour, but a credit in the defence of justice and love.˝

Áron Márton, who spoke up in this fashion, endeavoured to keep himself and his priests out of politics by his ethical bearing. In his encyclical issued in the autumn of 1944, he wrote: ˝… I reiterate my oft-repeated and emphasized admonition and directive: under no circumstances should our priests dabble in politics, not even if they think it might be in the interest of a good outcome… Politics is never a priest´s job; on the contrary, it has at all times been detrimental to the true exercise of one´s religious vocation.˝ He cautioned his priests, but he himself did not keep silent, always raising his voice. He did everything in his power to save the Hungarian people and keep them together. This attitude of his was regarded as conspiratorial during his show trial. In his last plea from the dock, he said: ˝… The second charge, according to which in the course of the peace negotiations I suggested a border-agreement, whereby more than a million of my Hungarian brethren living in Romania could return to the Hungarian linguistic community, is accurate and I accept responsibility for this. What is more, I ask the Bench to take into consideration that I was the initiator, and the responsibility lies solely with me.˝

Áron Márton objected time and again against communist repression. He protested against the forcible absorption of the Uniate Church into the national Greek Orthodox Church. He chose to reject state support for the Church, rather than limiting the number of his priests.

He was fully aware that his mission was not of this world, but to the world. In his courageously worded letter to Prime Minister Petru Groza, he made known the complaints of his people: ˝God created me a Hungarian, and it is natural that I cannot remain indifferent to the fate of my ethnic brethren. And my priestly vocation obligates me to weigh up questions from a moral viewpoint. The situation of Hungarians living under Romanian control is not consistent with those high moral requirements that the charter of the United Nations has designated as its basic principle for peaceful coexistence.˝

Gradually he remained alone, the leaders of other Churches choosing the option of  compromise in the interest of survival. The authorities tried to discredit the isolated, indomitable bishop by way of the media.

Summoned to appear in Bucharest on June 21, 1949, he was arrested en route by a ruse – the breakdown of his car. Foreseeing what was to happen, he had appointed a sequence of substitute bishop ordinariuses with full authority. News of his arrest reached the Vatican. On the bishop´s twenty-fifth anniversary of his consecration, Pope Pius XII appointed him titular cardinal, but he could not celebrate his silver mass, because by then he had been under arrest for ten days. During the course of two years on remand, he was imprisoned in the Piteşt, Nagyenyed, Máramarossziget and Bucharest jails. In 1951 he was given a life sentence for treason by the Bucharest military tribunal. He never spoke of his years of incarceration. Fellow-prisoners of his told that he had never accepted any preferential treatment, and his personal and priestly steadfastness served as an example to all of them. Bogus news of his death was also spread. Prison was truly a ˝great schooling˝ for him

On June 21, 1949 there appeared already the solitary great Hermit radiating serenity and spiritual peace, the bishop showing evidence of sanctity.

He accepted his release only if no conditions were attached to it.

On March 25, 1955 he once again undertook leadership of the archdiocese. If the authorities expected that his release would further divide the Church, they were disappointed. The good shepherd and benevolent father in him pardoned the priests who had yielded to state pressure and had become involved in the ˝peace-priesthood˝. He summoned them to a retreat, and after severe penitence sent them back into the community. By these measures he prevented any rifts occurring.

Between 1955 and 1957 he moved freely throughout his archdiocese. The authorities  objected to this, and confined him to his residence from 1957 to 1967. During that period he was allowed only to visit the cathedral. Yet even under these circumstances he remained the torchbearer of cheer and optimism for his flock and his priests: ˝We have a role to play in this world. Not so much a role, but rather a vocation. We are small, flickering lights open to the elements, yet by our faith we guard the warmth of love. We are but pale snowdrops, yet, having vanquished the frost, our presence is a portent of spring. We are called upon to bring back God into an unbelieving world.˝

During the time of his house arrest he was surrounded by listening devices. His guard dogs were regularly poisoned. He was even shot at once, but the bullet luckily missed him. In November, 1967, following a visit by Cardinal König, the government freed Márton from his house arrest. He accepted freedom only if it was unconditional. The ageing bishop could once again move freely in his diocese. His confirmation visits turned into veritable triumphs.

On February 29, 1968, the then Europe-oriented Ceauşescu forced the heads of the Churches to participate in a reception held in Bucharest. As always, Ceauşescu´s speech was accompanied by the ubiquitous ovation. Áron Márton noted: ˝The others showed their approval and applauded, and since I didn´t join in, the President looked at me askance, but I didn´t say anything. I thought I´d wait and see.˝ And what did he see? That they were afraid of him, ˝because as the President sat down, he observed that both of us are ´Oltians´, because we were born near the River Olt. They must take me for a very crafty man – I thought, because the Patriarch had said the same thing.˝
In 1970, 71 and 74 he managed to travel to Rome, and was received by Pope Paul VI.
His undiminished personality was always an encouragement and showed the right way to his priests. He always said, if you have a problem ˝use my name!˝
After their release from prison, he reinstated his priests, who had lost their parishes. When he was attacked for this by the Ministry of Culture, the great bishop did not give in: ˝I am prepared to go back to jail, but I cannot renounce the right of a bishop to determine where a priest can operate.˝
The captive bishop regarded it as his foremost task to develop and maintain the most loving relationship with his priests and his flock. This did not always go smoothly. But with his holy righteousness and his sense of fair play – admitting his own mistakes – he could always respond to the disgruntled.

During almost the entire time of his bishopric (1938-1980) he was the sentinel ˝Mr. Prisoner˝, as his mates from Csíkszentdomokos were wont to call him.
He was the prisoner of Gyulafehérvár after the Vienna Award, the prisoner of the communist regime after its establishment, for a decade the prisoner of his episcopal residency, and when his civic rights were restored, he became the prisoner of his illness and infirmity.
He was a prisoner, yet he was free; what is more, even in his humiliated state he was able to set others free, to reinvigorate them
During the early seventies his health began to fail. Despite the severe pain caused by prostate cancer, Áron Márton kept on fulfilling his episcopal duties. Between 1976 and 1978 he handed in his resignation for reasons of ill-health on four separate occasions, but because of the situation the Pope rejected it every time.
Pope John Paul II relieved him of his duties of governing the diocese of Gyulafehérvár on April 2, 1980. He issued his last encyclical on May 15. In it he wrote: ˝…My Beloved Brethren, as your pontiff, my first endeavour was to strengthen your faith, and my legacy to you is adherence to the faith.˝
The last months of his life were filled with suffering, but he endured it with self-discipline and forbearance.
He breathed his last on September 29, 1980, the day of the Archangel St. Michael, the feast day of his cathedral.
On hearing of his death, Pope John Paul II said the following during the general audience of October 1: ˝Yesterday we received news that Msgr. Áron Márton, Bishop Emeritus of  Gyulafehérvár was summoned by the Lord… His memory will remain holy because of his extraordinary goodness, flaming apostolic zeal, as well as his close and steadfast association with the chair of St. Peter.˝
If we were to espouse his ideas and wise principles – irrespective of which side of the border we are living – they would serve as pointers for the start of the third millennium. His message can be a signpost for all Hungarians. ˝In the days of universal uncertainty we have realized that we were alone, and besides our own strength, we can depend only on God. … Suffering is a great teacher, and it has taught us something that in the days of ease one is apt to forget – togetherness: to understand and support each other, to do away with clashes of interest, with social boundaries, because only by joining forces can we fruitfully deal with our destinies.˝
And now do go and take a look at the exhibition, be the witness´ witnesses, because for a whole year now the strength of this house rests in this double testimony. And we look forward to having a little chat on the third floor with our guests.

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