On April 24, 2019 the New York State Department of Health in Albany, NY held a ceremony at the Wadsworth Center Biggs Laboratory to unveil a statue of Ignác Semmelweis to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the physician’s birth. Semmelweis was one of the most influential (and unusual) physicians of the 19th century; his pioneer work of antiseptic procedures saved […]
It was the year of the Lord 2019 when the hordes of illegal migrants flooded the shores of Nirvana. The threat to this huge and peaceful nation was overwhelming. Crowds of vigilantes marched on the streets all over the country demanding the newly elected president, who using tweeters, came to power by promising newly minted jokes daily. Senator Gloomingdale pointed […]
The National Catholic Reporter’s Joshua J. McElwee wrote an exhaustive piece on the upcoming visit of Pope Francis to Romania, emphasizing the trip’s significance from the perspective of outreach to the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, which counts 500,000 adherents. Pope Francis will beatify seven Greek Catholic bishops, recognizing as well the persecution that Greek Catholic clergy and faithful suffered in […]
On January 24, 2017, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit by Hungary. The award was presented in Washington D.C. with great fanfare by Orbán loyalist Ambassador Réka Szemerkényi and Kaptur expressed her support for the Budapest government. Hungarian taxpayer’s money was not spared. The award ceremony was preceded by a piano concert […]
István Gégény, the editor of a Hungarian-language Catholic blog entitled SZEMlélek, explores why it’s worth remembering that religious leaders–be they parish priests or bishops–are people too. Just like members of their congregation, they struggle to live their faith in the everyday. HFP offers this English-language translation of Mr. Gégény’s piece, entitled “Püspök a padban“, or “A bishop in the pews.” […]
The Mi Hazánk, or in English the Our Homeland far-right party announced the formation of a paramilitary group called the National Legion on 14 May 2019. This new group follows in the footsteps of the banned Magyar Gárda, once the paramilitary wing of the Jobbik party–back when it represented the hard right in Hungary. The Gárda, whose uniform closely resembled […]
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán last sat next to an American president in the Oval Office 21 years ago, in 1998. At the time, the 35 year old Mr. Orbán, serving his first four year term at the helm of the Hungarian government, sat in the company of President Bill Clinton. Mr. Orbán had then just completed his transformation from an […]
The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is concerned about “Hungary’s downward democratic trajectory” and issued the following letter about Viktor Orbán’s upcoming visit to the White House. Four US Senators, among them ranking member Robert Menendez signed the letter. Not too long ago, in 2012 Senator Menendez actually praised Hungary’s democracy and politicians of the Orbán government, among […]
Historians will credit Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with having been ahead of his time on the nature of political discourse and on the populist transformation of what was once called conservatism. Mr. Orbán has avoided all debates with his political opponents since 2006 and finessed the tribal approach to politics that was only adopted by others in North America and […]
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s voice is the only heard in Hungary today and his rhetoric is firmly anti–Islamist. At the same time, Mr. Orbán maintains close and friendly relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran is a theocracy. Islam is an inseparable part of the political structure and the government is based on sharia or Islamic law. Iran is […]
