The vaccination of healthcare and social workers in Romania is already happening, and starting January 15, teachers and priests can also request the vaccine. Apropos of this, maszol.ro asked Transylvanian-Hungarian Church leaders what their opinion is about the vaccine.
Bishop Ferenc Bálint Benczédi: This vaccine was created with the intention to help
The bishop of the Hungarian Unitarian Church, Ferenc Bálint Benczédi said the following:
“In my opinion, this vaccine was created with the intention to help not to kill because a person who believes in God could not want to hurt his fellow human beings.
Throughout history, we have already gotten through many crises,
even if they decimated us, and I believe that God did not create
this world to destroy it.”
The bishop’s opinion is that it is essential to stay positive in this crucial situation because “you don’t pour gasoline on the fire when it is raging but try to help and repel the danger instead,” and this is the duty of the Church and its pastors.
Bishop Ferenc Bálint Benczédi also emphasized that we not only have to protect our own lives but also the lives of those close to us. And we can do this by vaccinating ourselves and “not becoming carriers and spreaders of the virus.” He thinks that in our individualistic world, in most cases, people only think about themselves, but in this situation, we cannot think like that and we have to take responsibility for each other.
Bishop Dezső Zoltán Adorjáni: We should pay attention to the opinions of experts
Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Romania, Dezső Zoltán Adorjáni, gives credit to experts’ opinions and suggests to believers that they do the same, instead of believing rumors. According to the church leader, the mass media has “ruined the mind and dignity” of the people, which has resulted in fear and ignorance. This is why he suggests paying attention to the authentic experts and not being political about it.
“If the road to healing leads through the vaccine, why shouldn’t we trust it? Why do we always question and doubt it?
Conspiracy theories unfortunately are widely spread because of social media, resulting in a lot of trouble for humanity. Of course, we can have doubts, but still, we should have more trust in the experts, who have been working on the vaccine for months,” said the bishop. He added that when his turn will come, he will get vaccinated, and this is what he suggests to everyone else as well.
Bishop Béla Kató: We stand behind the vaccine one hundred percent
According to the Bishop of the Transylvanian Reformed Diocese, Béla Kató, the Church considers the help provided by science and doctors to be the help of God for the people to heal. According to him, the Reformed Church backs the vaccine “one hundred percent” and suggests to both pastors and believers that they follow the instructions of the authorities and “when the time comes” get vaccinated because this is how they can become immune.
According to Béla Kató, the problem is that recently – especially because of the internet – skepticism about everything has become common.
“In the past, the people of science, the church and its leaders used
to have much higher credibility. This
is lost today, and you can
get the people to believe the opposite of everything,
and this is how today’s skeptical and conspiracy-theory-believing society has been formed,” he added.
Bishop Béla Kató believes that as time passes, it will be proven more and more that the vaccine is safe, and slowly “society will calm down,” and more and more people will get vaccinated. He thinks that, similar to the flu, which returns from year to year, the solution for the coronavirus will also be the vaccine.
Maszol also contacted the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Gyulafehérvár (Alba-Iulia), Gergely Kovács, who promised his answer after January 15.
Title image: Leaders of the Historical Transylvanian-Hungarian Churches. From left to right: Bishop Ferenc Bálint Benczédi, Archbishop Gergely Kovács, Bishop Béla Kató, Bishop Dezső Zoltán Adorjáni. (Photo: Gábor Kiss)
