national populism and slovak – hungarian relations in - MEK

For God and Nation: Christian National Populismrically and strongly in disfavour of regular members is subsequently reflectedin its everyday existence.Regular church members’ participation in the process of choosing theirleaders is close to zero; the rate of Catholic Christians’ involvement inefforts to reform this institution is not essentially higher. While these effortsare materialized in certain activities, mobilization of regular membersremains an exception; in a way, it ensued from an apparent tension betweendouble standards governing church community and civil society that offersto Christians a relatively comfortable asylum from impracticable churchrequirements regarding their personal, family or public life. In recent years,the Vatican faced several cases of public pressure with respect to appointingnew bishops or dissatisfaction with Catholic hierarchs’ performance and,quite surprisingly, succumbed to it at times; 22 however, these are exceptionsrather than the rule. In an environment where development of civil societydoes not reach the level at which tensions stemming from double standardswould be as obvious, the Catholic hierarchy enjoys relatively strong authority.Articulating its statements on the one hand or taciturnity on the otheris very important for society in situations that call for positions and/oractions defined by values.Individual national administrative units of the Roman Catholic Churchare only seemingly independent. The level of centralization and interconnectionwith the Holy See is absolute to such a degree that a mere trace ofautonomous administration of any part of the Roman Catholic Church anywherein the world that would not comply with the Vatican perspective hasno chance of materialization. The church legislation does not allow for anypolemic in this respect, not even theoretical. The chances of regularCatholics to influence important decisions by church establishments shouldtherefore be perceived in this context. 23The liturgical reform that followed the 2 nd Vatican Council was the mostsignificant process of reflecting national specifics in practical church activitiesto date. In practice this amounted to authorizing the use of nationallanguages during divine services and introducing various elements ofnational culture into the official ritual code. So it happened that folk dances,national chants and other folklore elements of local cultures not onlybecame part of divine services previously practiced in Latin but they fullyreplaced them.The Catholic Church christened the process by a progressive term ofinculturation that was supposed to express the centre’s willingness torespect national cultural specifics in practicing Catholic beliefs. In order toillustrate the distance the Vatican thus covered, it is important to realizeNational Populism and Slovak – Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006 – 2009. Forum Minority Research Institute Šamorín – Somorja, 2009231