The priest who molested A. – let’s call him Brúnó – used to organize camps for children in a bad socio-economic situation from congregations near Budapest. Thousands of children from the most vulnerable classes participated in these camps, but we do not know how many fell victim to the sexual predator. The Church is said to have received over 20 complaints, but it is well-known that only a fraction of children (and parents) report the abuse, so the real number of victims is probably much higher.
As Index reported back in 2016, A., his brother and two other boys got close to Brúnó when he was doing practice in their congregation. The four boys shared with him their problems and received from him the attention that had been missing from their lives. A. was about 12-13 years old when Brúnó first touched his genitals. This was repeated about 5 times, always with the same scenario: first they had a deep conversation about A.’s family, then Brúnó started groping him, sometimes in the presence of other people, who seemed to notice nothing. On the last occasion Brúnó went too far, holding A.’s penis in his hand for a long time and kissing his neck. A. broke off contact with him after this but could not get rid of the emotional impact of the abuse.
444.hu writes that already as a teenager, A. told about his case to two Church officials who since then have achieved high positions. However, no official record was made, and no official investigation started. Indeed, a procedure inside the Church only started after over 20 complaints have arrived against Brúnó, and these were not even what started it. A.’s twin brother, whom A. had told about the abuse, blackmailed Brúnó (without A. knowing), who first paid but then made a report to the police. This is how the abuse against A. came to light, who was sent from one psychological examination to the other, though an expert opinion dated 2008 states that his account of the abuse is realistic.
In 2015, a similar case was exposed in the school of the Pannonhalma Benedictine monastery, where archabbot Asztrik Várszegi started an investigation in response to complaints of sexual abuse against one of the teachers. Hopeful, A. contacted the archdiocese office and tried to communicate with Cardinal Péter Erdő, Primate of Hungary, but he only received registered letters and those only rarely. In 2015 he collected all his documents and went to the Cardinal’s Palace in person, but never got to talk to him; instead, when he did not leave after an hour and a half, the police were called on him.
In September 2016 Péter Erdő banned Brúnó for ten years from serving as a priest, and when the press became interested in the abuse cases, also banned him from lay services. In November, the Pope expelled him from the Order of Priests. Nevertheless, the archdiocese has still not acknowledged A. as a victim, and nobody has apologized to him. He has written several letters to Péter Erdő and other Church leaders. In June 2019 he went to the Basilica for a high mass celebrated by the Cardinal, hoping that Erdő would apologize to victims of Church sexual abuse, which did not happen. Erdő was so afraid A. would disrupt the occasion that he did not leave through the main entrance but through the sacristy. Several of Erdő’s subordinates gave testimonies to the police, one of them saying that A. had not done anything disruptive but had “looked like he’d walk up to the altar at any minute and disturb the liturgy.” The next day, the vicar of the Basilica reported A. to the police, claiming A. had been harassing him, turning up at the Basilica and asking him to make Péter Erdő apologiz
A. later texted some church leaders, saying he would turn up at events and publicly ask Erdő and the archbishop of Veszprém to apologize. Nevertheless, he never disturbed any event. He did not even know there was a police investigation against him until on August 20th, 2019 he was arrested and taken into custody; he was not let out until the evening, thereby preventing him from going to the High Mass commemorating the foundation of the Christian Hungarian state.
Half a year after this, A. told 444.hu that “they have managed to break him” and apologized to all the church officials he had contacted, telling his story and hoping for an apology. Nevertheless, next week he will have to appear in court, charged with harassment.
(compiled from articles on index.hu, hvg.hu and 444.hu)
