Testimony

Grandma Krabi says nothing, but gives him a magic whistle. She asks the boy to blow the whistle when the uncle speaks again of Gypsies as “no good”. During the next visit, the sound of the whistle can be heard. Immediately, the walls start talking: “Do you know that we have been made of clay by the grandfather of Lajos?” After that, also the oven speaks, and then the dishes, the spoons and forks, the harnesses of the horses, the wallpaper and so on. And finally, the tomato says from the table, “and we have been grown by the mother of Lajos.” After this, nobody ever said again in Dani’s family that Gypsies are “no good”.

After ten years in the Jesuit pastoral ministry among the Gypsies, I can say that this story expresses for me the essence and spirit of our work. The most important element of this service is that we seek to build the self-esteem of the Gypsies, to reveal the personal dignity of the human being. For the Gypsies, the greatest burden is not poverty, but that they become second, third or fourth class citizens marked with the stamp of “worthlessness”.

Our service among Gypsies is primarily teaching and education. I believe that the Gypsies can only assert themselves in the world today if their knowledge is relevant for the market. The decades-long unhealthy education policy and economic order meant that thousands of Hungarians and Gypsies are now unemployed because of their outdated know-how.

For this reason, we are doing our utmost to fight pure as well as functional illiteracy. Only those who can read and write are able to live with dignity in today’s world. We are aiming to contribute to this through the “School of Love” that we have founded.

We consider it extremely important to enter into contact with intellectual groups in order to support them in taking the leadership of their people into their own hands. For years, we have been in contact with a group of Gypsy intellectuals. As a fruit this collaboration, later in 2011, a Jesuit Roma College will be opened, where the boarders can live and learn, not just languages but all about leading a dignified life today.

We often think that having a decent life is only a problem for Gypsies who live in deep poverty. But discrimination has the same impact on every human being and on every Gypsy. One can be a learned Gypsy or a Roma with several diplomas, but if in the crowded tram the seat next to him or her remains empty for a long time - and this happens often – it leaves deep wounds.

A young Gypsy told me that he does not primarily expect social assistance from the Church. For him, it is not important if the Church is able to provide social support – this would be the duty of the state and the respective government. He wished, however, that parishes and their priests would accept Gypsies with love and affection. They ought to be perceived just like any baptised Christian, with devotion and respect. And he would expect the Church to be the voice of the humiliated, of those who are wounded in their human dignity, especially in places where even Gypsy politicians behave rather like prostitutes of party politics than like representatives of their people.

We try to be consistent with our mission and, like Dani, to stand next to Lajos, to be a brother where loving closeness and acceptance prevail, and not gestures of rejection.

József Hofher SJ

Budapest, Hungary

[email protected]

PS. For the Hungarian Roma, to use the name “Gypsy” is natural, many even reject the word “Roma”. “Gypsy” has no negative connotations, as in many other European countries. A testimony for this is that in Hungary, one does not speak of “music of the Roma” but “Gypsy music” or “Hungarian Gypsy music”, and this double identity is seen as a sign of deep self-respect.