Statement of Bishop Zoltán Balog

Statement Issued on 13th February Regarding the Accusation Related to the Clemency Scandal in Hungary

As the Ministerial President of the supreme legislative body of the Reformed Church in Hungary, the Synod, on behalf of the Presidential Council of RCH, I have today convened all the deans and lay presidents of the presbyteries of our church to discuss and respond to the attacks on me personally and our church.

Four-fifths of the officers attended the meeting. The meeting concluded with a secret ballot vote of confidence, in which 86 percent of those present affirmed their confidence in me. I graciously thank them for that.

During the meeting of the Presidential Council, the four bishops and four lay presidents [representing the four church districts] firmly asked me to reconsider my public engagements and how they may be reconciled with my mandate as Ministerial President of the Synod. I will comply with this request. If necessary, I am prepared to convene the meeting of our supreme legislative body, the Synod.

I am aware that the attacks do not end with this, but the confidence of the leaders of our Church gives me the strength to endure them. We reject any attempt to drag our Church into an issue with which it has nothing to do. Petitions for clemency have not been and are not being dealt with by any body of our Church. As the Ministerial President of the Synod and as a member of the Advisory Board to the President of Hungary, I consider it my duty to respond to the accusations in front of the community of our Church.

It is certainly known to all that I have a long-standing working and good personal relationship with the former President [of Hungary]. She is a faithful member of our Church. Many people within and beyond the borders of Hungary have witnessed this in recent years. It is also known that I am a member of the Advisory Board of the President, together with 15 notable figures shaping public life, science, church and culture.

Whenever I take a position on a matter at the request of the President, it is at her discretion alone, irrespective of whether I am wrong or not. That goes without saying in an advisory role. She makes the decisions, her sovereignty is unquestionable. The President has publicly expressed what she found necessary. She took responsibility for the decision she made. I respect the manner in which she closed this matter.

Let me give you the most important concrete facts about the accusations. In 2016, during my tenure as a minister of the government, the director of the children's home in Bicske, who had previously been awarded the István Bárczy Prize by the municipality of Budapest, received also an award signed by the then President of Hungary at the nomination of representatives from the professional field. As soon as suspicions arose against the director, I immediately suspended him, ordered an investigation and at the end of the criminal proceedings he was sentenced to prison. I never met him personally, and he never applied for a pardon.

In the case of the deputy director, Endre K., who was not convicted as a paedophile, others have appealed to the President of Hungary for clemency. I did not submit the appeal, nor did I present it. My opinion, along with others, was also sought. On the basis of the preliminary assessments and the information about him and his life, I agreed with the pardon granted to him. I was wrong, and I made a mistake.

To whomever I owe an apology for this, I have already apologised, and I do so now. I did not make any decision; the unequivocal rejection of the crime of paedophilia has never been and will never be a matter of debate for me. In the Reformed Church in Hungary, we are also united on this. I must apologise, not because I have sided with a man asking for pardon, which I have done several times previously since Ferenc Mádl's tenure as president [of Hungary], both ex officio and as a pastor, but because this case has caused damage to the Reformed Church in Hungary.

I deeply regret this, and I apologise to all of my fellow Reformed people and I ask them to forgive me. But any consequence of this matter in our church is not for the media, the opposition or the government to decide but only for our elected church officers.

For that, I thank them for their support. We ask all members of our Church and people of good will not to allow hate-mongering to prevail in the world or in the Church, but to pray that peace and love may prevail among us. We trust in the mercy that Christ has prepared for all people.