True Story II – Central and Eastern Europe: A Return to Life

“These countries are in crisis. They need to do something radical to move away from the Culture of Death… and if they don’t, they are going to disappear.”

— Joseph Meaney, Director of International Coordination, Human Life International

In Hungary and Poland we find two European nations whose people and deep Christian roots have suffered terribly under the most destructive ideologies in history – Nazism and Communism. Although both nations fought valiantly, sometimes together, against the forces of oppression, both are missing millions of fellow citizens lost to war, concentration camps and abortion.

Yet the neighbors of Hungary and Poland in the European Union and around the world are watching as both have made dramatic moves to restrict abortion: Poland with a 1993 law that has virtually eliminated abortion on demand; and Hungary with 2011’s “Easter Constitution,” which lays the groundwork for a possible elimination of legal abortion and other assaults on innocent life and the family. Even as pressure increases on Hungary to get in line with the rest of the EU and abandon its Christian identity and morality, Poland finds that returning to a culture of life takes more than changes in law, since Western consumerism has eclipsed the more overt attacks on life and family.

We find both important lessons and hope in the efforts of Poland and Hungary to reclaim their Christian identity, and to return to a Culture of Life.

Bonus clip: Personal story of Joannes Bucher

Bonus clip: Personal story of Imre Téglásy