A new model of parish life in a rural church: Pécel in the 1970s and 1980s

Abstract

The study deals with the history of the Roman Catholic parish of Pécel in Pest County, with special emphasis on the 1970s and 1980s. Endre Halász (1915-2001) was the parish priest of the village from 1951. The parish priest did much to revitalise the faith life during the years of dictatorship and was generally respected and appreciated by the faithful. However, Archbishop-Bishop József Bánk of Vác retired him in 1983 under pressure from the state. The parish priest was a member of the Bokor base community founded by the Piarist monk György Bulányi in the second half of the 1960s. This spiritual movement, which was built up from a network of autonomous communities, rejected armed military service in the name of non-violence, which proved particularly dangerous in the eyes of the authorities.

Halász regularly hosted community events in the parish, such as the so-called Bokor celebrations, and, together with the parish council of Pécel, tried to integrate small groups organised locally into parish life from the 1970s onwards. This study aims to show what room for manoeuvre the parish priest had when he tried to resist state and church pressure in the early 1980s and listened to his conscience. The study will also examine the behaviour of the parish council at the time of the parish priest’s forced retirement, and how the attitude of the new parish priest and the council towards Endre Halász changed in the second half of the 1980s, in line with the perceived or real expectations of the Church.