WorthyNews: Hungarian Bishop Apologizes For Supporting Presidential Pardon For Child Abuser

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by Stefan Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

BUDAPEST  (Worthy News) – Hungarian Reformed Bishop Zoltán Balog has apologized for advising the country’s president to give a presidential pardon to a former deputy director of an orphanage who was an accomplice in the sexual abuse of children.

The pardon, discovered this month, sparked massive protests and prompted Katalin Novák, Hungary’s first female and youngest president, to resign.

The mother-of-three promoted a more inclusive, less aggressive style than the prime minister in her largely symbolic role as head of state.

Another woman, the tough-talking former Justice Minister Judit Varga, also stepped down as legislator. She will no longer lead the ruling Fidesz party’s campaign for the European elections as she countersigned the presidential pardon.

However, Balog, who is pastoral president of the Synod of the Hungarian Reformed Church, will remain in his job. He said that during a meeting with the church leadership, “86 percent of those present expressed support” for him.

Yet he stressed that “Based on preliminary opinions and information about him [Endre K] and his life, I agreed with granting him a pardon, but I was wrong, and I made a mistake,” he said.

“I apologize to everyone I must apologize to,” he added.

SEXUAL ABUSE

The man, only identified as Endre K, was sentenced to more than three years in prison in 2018 for pressuring victims to retract their claims of sexual abuse by the institution’s director, who received eight years for abusing at least 10 children between 2004 and 2016

Balog claimed it was not he who made a decision concerning the request for a presidential pardon and added that he was clearly rejecting the crime of pedophilia. “We have full consensus about this, too, in the Reformed Church,” he said.

The announcement came ahead of a massive protest in Budapest against the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close ally of the ex-president and former Justice minister.

It comes amid mounting pressure on Orbán, even within his Fidesz party.

Judit Varga’s ex-husband, powerful Fidesz insider Peter Magyar, suggested that the self-declared Christian and traditional families supporting Orbán knew more about the scandal than he wanted to admit.

Magyar said he does “not want to be part of a system for a minute longer where the real culprits hide behind women’s skirts.”

He earlier condemned Antal Rogán, the government’s communications official, asking him why he was staying silent, hiding behind the prime minister’s spokesman.

TOUGHER FIGURE

“You used to cut a much tougher figure,” he said. “Why are you hiding from your constituents? Why haven’t you held a press conference for years? Are you afraid to answer questions?”

He also criticized István Tiborcz, the prime minister’s son-in-law and husband of Orbán’s daughter Rahel.

“Dear Stephen [István], you are a really talented person; at the age of 37, you have 100 billion Forints (257 million euros), so many hotels, banks, fund managers, valuable former state-owned properties.”

“What other companies have you taken over lately? What is the total of government loans or grants you received to build your portfolio? Have you recently visited villages in Borsod [in northeast Hungary], where children sometimes play in the yard without warm clothes in winter?”

The European Union has frozen billions of euros in funding for Hungary amid rule-of-law concerns, but Orbán has denied involvement in the controversial business deals.

On Saturday, he will try to limit the political damage in his annual state-of-the-nation speech.

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