According to the president of the Romanian Hungarian Democratic Union (RMDSZ), the history of Bözödújfalu is a warning for the entire Transylvanian Hungarian community. “If we don’t fight for our common future, if we’re not able to fight for what’s ours, it’s not important to others, and then we collapse like the tower of a washed-out church,” he said.
He assessed it as follows: flood protection was only an excuse for the communists, the real purpose of building the watershed that flooded the settlement in Maros county was to eradicate the traditional community.
“To eliminate traditions, to eliminate communal ways of life, and to create a new person with no roots and no ties to anything. As familiar as it sounds, there is nothing new under the sun. 21st century Marxists in disguise would do the same to us today,” he noted.
According to Kelemen Hunor, the persecuted and forcibly displaced community of Bözödújfalu is a multi-denominational, true Transylvanian community living together in peace, which did not care about the destruction: it gathers every year on the first Saturday of August and not only remembers, but also builds.
“Bözödújfalu showed that buildings can be destroyed, but not the soul, the faith, the community. Bözödújfalu is therefore not only a symbol of senseless but premeditated destruction, but from now on it is also a symbol of endurance, rebirth and all-conquering unity,” concluded the president of the RMDSZ.
The Transylvanian Reformed bishop Béla Kató pointed out: the rebuilt church is not only a memorial to the village that was submerged: it is a place of pilgrimage for all Transylvanian Hungarians, who in the past decades or centuries were forced to leave their birthplace or birthplace, who had their property taken away and whose streets, neighborhoods, main squares, “to erase all the memories that were once characteristic of this region”.
The Unitarian bishop István Kovács warned that the Hungarian communities are threatened by a much more serious “flooding” and village destruction, which comes from the Western world “turned away from its values and corners”, therefore the people of the Székely villages must be careful not to lose their faith, “spiritual its towers”.
Bözödújfalu was submerged 30 years ago, but the church tower rising out of the water remained a symbol of the destruction of the village for another two decades. The church, which collapsed in 2014, has now been rebuilt with public donations. The restoration was initiated by Attila Zoltán Csibi, the mayor of neighboring Erdőszentgyörgy. As he said: when he was elected, he also became the mayor of Bözödújfalu, which no longer exists administratively, so he could not let the flooded settlement completely disappear from view, he felt it his duty to create a lasting memory of the birth village of the Bözödújfalu people who found refuge in Erdőszentgyörgy.
The news of the reconstruction received support from everywhere, from Canada to the Carpathian Basin to Australia. The foundation stone of the Church of Unity was laid during the 2018 village meeting. The name of more than 500 donors can be read on the sign posted at the site, but the construction was also supported by many anonymous donors by purchasing brick tickets.
It was said at the Saturday ceremony: Bözödújfalu once had five churches, the Church of Togetherness, consecrated on Saturday, represents all the denominations of the former settlement. The building that evokes the memory of the destroyed village is modeled on the former, half-collapsed, ruined church: the nave is not covered, its walls house an exhibition showing the past of Bözödújfalu, the tower helmet is made of glass, and from a distance it is only visible that the tiles are missing. Roman Catholic Archdeacon Péter Arthur, Unitarian Bishop István Kovács, and Transylvanian Reformed Bishop Béla Kató blessed the Church of Unity.
2024-08-03 16:33:13