Dear Colleagues,

In the coming days, I will ask the members of the Hungarian Lobby to help
with a number of actions related to the Danube Law Suit in The Hague, the
situation of the Csangos and others. Right now, I would only like to report,
that our HL meetings in Budapest were successful, our protest at the National
Museum resulted in much more respectful surroundings for the Crown of Saint
Stephen and that on the airplane back, I was pleased to read an excellent HL
letter in the newspaper “European” by Csaba Gaal. Congratulations Csaba.

Now, I would like to ask all HL members and all others whom we can reach, to
mount a major campaign action in support of the csangos in Moldavia (the
Hungarian csangos), who are asking for masses in their native language. I
have mailed the attached letter in my own name to the Catholic Church
authorities and would like to ask you to NOT ONLY DO THE SAME in your own
names, but also to print out this letter and distribute it among your
friends, take it to your churches, local papers, representatives, in other
words, let us mount a real campaign in support of the cause of these most
faightful Catholics. Let us try to make their church to understand and
support them.

Best regards: Bela Liptak

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November 6, 1996

Episcop Petru Gergel
Episcopia Romano-Catolica
Iasi, Code: 6600
Romania

Dear Bishop Gergel,

Upon visiting Cleja in Bacau county, I learned that the mass is not offered
to the Roman Catholics of this region, in their native tongue. (They moved
into Moldavia in the 14-15th Centuries and still speak that archaic form of
Hungarian, which was spoken at the time, when they left Hungary.) This denial
of offering the mass in their native tongue, is both contrary to the
teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and also is an affront to their most
basic human rights.

I was told that the congregations of Cleja, Pustina and Lazped have been
asking for years, that the Holy Mass be offered in their archaic Hungarian
language. They claim, that they were told, that “Hungarian is the language of
the Devil” and in response to their request, on the 29th of April, 1995,
thugs were bussed to Cleja (lead by Marcel Ungureanu) and while their priest
and some 30 policeman stood passively by, the parishioners were beaten up.

I respectfully ask you Bishop Gergel, to order a full investigation of these
events and to permit the use of their native tongue, both in the churches and
in the schools that are operated by the church.

Respectfully yours,

Your name, address, title

Copies:
The Honorable Archbishop Jan Robu, Archiepiscopacy Romano-Catolica,
Bucuresti, Romania
The Honorable Paskai Lszl, Hercegprims, Esztergom, Hungary
His Holiness, Pope John Paul, Vatican City, Rome, Italy