012012 - Prešovská univerzita v Prešove

Baán István
mixed families with Latin rite fathers the children were split according to
their genders. When the father followed the Greek rite, true in thirteen
instances, the children in only three families were all raised in the Greek
tradition; while in four families the children were split in terms of religious
ritual. In the remaining five families all of the children were of the Latin
rite! (In the other mixed families with Lutheran or Reformed fathers the
children were confessionally divided by gender.) The data showed that in
Miskolc the Greek Catholic community faced diminishment and increasing
Latinization. In a religiously heterogeneous surrounding a Ruthenian
minority that lacked its own church building and priest would not be able
to maintain its viability.
Aware of Bacsinszky’s plan, Ferenc Miklósy, the Catholic priest at
Mindszent, indignantly explained that he did not understand why the
priest at Görömböly did not come to Mindszent in order to perform his
liturgical duties and thereby fulfill his responsibility to satisfy the needs
of the faithful. The reply from Munkács was not long in coming. János
Pásztélyi, Praepositus Maior of Munkács as well as Dean of Zemplén
and Borsod, answered on behalf of Bacsinszky by addressing the county
assembly. Pásztélyi noted that until Miklósy became the parish priest at
Mindszent the relations between the followers of the Greek and Latin rites
had been peaceful. However, Miklósy so consistently disturbed the Uniate
believers that they were in no way able freely to practice their religion;
and Pásztélyi furnished numerous examples to buttress his argument.
(This probably explains why the previous canonical visitations did not
reveal any complaints centering on the co-habitation of the two groups of
faithful.) Earlier the Uniate from Görömböly had come assembled together
with their priest to Mindszent to participate in the procession, but Miklósy
had banned them. On several occasions Miklósy dissolved the engagement
of Roman Catholic young men with Ruthenian girls because the bride to
be refused to abandon the Greek rite. Furthermore he attempted through
all manner of obstruction to prevent Greek rite parents from taking their
newly born children to Görömböly to be baptized by the Uniate priest.
For a long time Miklósy also kept the Görömböly parish from burying
its dead at Miskolc. When the burials finally were performed, Miklósy
either prohibited bell ringing for the dead or demanded an unusually high
fee for it. It is not true that he would have permitted the Greek Catholic
priest to perform his duties in the church at Mindszent. Instead even after
repeated requests he refused to allow it.
In order to illustrate the quarrels Pásztélyi described an incident from
1774. A Greek Catholic widow with five children Mária Rásoni died on
October 8 of that year. Her children wanted to bury their mother’s remains
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