AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE HOLY SEE AND HUNGARY ON PUBLIC SERVICE AND RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY AND FINANCIAL MATTERS

Vatican City, 22 October 2013 (VIS) – On Monday, 21 October, at the Hungarian parliament in Budapest, the Holy See and Hungary signed an agreement modifying the 1997 Concordat on the financing of the public service and religious activity in Hungary of the Catholic Church, as well as on several issues of a financial nature.

On behalf of the Holy See, the agreement was signed by Archbishop Alberto Bottari de Castello, apostolic nuncio to Hungary. The deputy prime minister Zsolt Semjen signed on behalf of Hungary.

The agreement modifies and updates the existing concordat of 20 June 1997, in the context of new legislation linked to the Basic Law of Hungary, promulgated on 25 April 2011. It regulates various financial issues regarding the teaching of religion in schools, Catholic higher education institutions, the restoration and conservation of religious patrimony of monuments and works of art owned by ecclesiastical bodies, the destination of a portion of tax to the Catholic Church, and the income of ex-ecclesiastical real estate not recorded in the appendix to the 1997 agreement.

The Agreement, which consists of seven articles and three appendices, will come into force upon the filing of the instruments of ratification.

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF JOHN PAUL II'S PONTIFICATE

Vatican City, 22 October 2013 (VIS) – Today is the liturgical memory of Blessed John Paul II. This year it coincides with the thirty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of his pontificate, which began on Sunday 22 October 1978, when the young Cardinal Wojtyla, aged just 58, previously archbishop of Krakow, became the first Slavic Pope and went on to guide the Church for a further twenty-seven years. To commemorate this occasion, the book “Diritti e popoli in Giovanni Paolo II: principi fondamentali e prospettivi futuri” (“Rights and Peoples in John Paul II: fundamental principles and future perspectives) will be presented today at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

IN MEMORIAM

Vatican City, 22 October 2013 (VIS) - The following prelates died in recent weeks:

- Bishop Peter Paul Prabhu, apostolic nuncio emeritus to Zimbabwe, on 10 September at the age of 82.

- Bishop Pietro Farina, of Caserta, Italy, on 24 September at the age of 71.

- Bishop Timothy Joseph Lyne, auxiliary emeritus of Chicago, U.S.A., on 25 September at the age of 94.

- Bishop Ernst Gutting, auxiliary emeritus of Speyer, Germany, on 27 September at the age of 94.

- Bishop Silvano Montevecchi, emeritus of Ascoli Piceno, Italy, on 27 September at the age of 75.

- Bishop Antonio Baltasar Marcelino, emeritus of Aveiro, Portugal, on 9 October at the age of 83.

- Bishop Maximiano Tuazon Cruz, emeritus of Calbayog, Philippines, on 9 October at the age of 90.

- Bishop Georg Weinhold, auxiliary emeritus of Dresden-Meissen, Germany, on 10 October at the age of 78.

- Bishop James Joseph Daly, auxiliary emeritus of Rockville Centre, U.S.A., on 14 October at the age of 92.

- Bishop Eugene Georges Joseph Lecroisnier, emeritus of Belfort-Montbeliard, France, on 15 October at the age of 90.

- Bishop Alexander James Quinn, auxiliary emeritus of Cleveland, U.S.A., on 18 October at the age of 81.

- Bishop Bernardo Filipe Governo, O.F.M. Cap., emeritus of Quelimane, Mozambique, on 20 October at the age of 74.