Free Thought 1914/2

For the free-thinking public of all countries!

- The proclamation of the International Federation of Free Thought is the Ruthenian coup REFERENCE. -

The Center of the International Federation is calling on you to protect freedom of conscience, which is still being violated in many countries today. Some recent events are apt to draw public attention to this issue.

Two months ago, we reported on the persecution of Czech freethinkers in Austria, while at the same time in Russia, the Beilis case concerns Jews with the ancient slander of bloodshed, as if they were still living in the darkest Middle Ages. In Prussia and much of Germany, religious education is still compulsory for [57] children of non-denominational parents. And hasn’t a Protestant captain been sentenced to six months in prison in Spain — and the fact that he was later pardoned doesn’t change anything about the injustice committed — because he didn’t want to attend the Mass of the Holy Spirit? And in Belgium, a soldier was sentenced to eight days in prison for refusing to pay tribute to the altar sacrament. And even in liberal England, a strict prison of up to four months is handed out for “blasphemy”.

But above all, religious impatience is rampant in Hungary.

Last year, the population of some Ruthenian villages in Maramures left the Greek Catholic (united) religion and returned to the Orthodox religion in which they lived before the Jesuits were accustomed. with their means, violence, and cunning, they again managed to redirect them indirectly back to Catholicism.

The blind zeal of the clerics could not bear this defeat and the XX. In the 16th century we witnessed - almost unbelievably - the sight of the repetition of the XVII. century "suburbs." Troops were quadrupled into the villages that broke away from the Greek Catholic Church, causing all sorts of inconveniences to the population and making it so miserable that in May last year, nine thousand of them, as written by Pesti Hírlap, were forced to return to the Greek Catholic Church. Those who were stubborn, prosecuted for infidelity and excitement, and imprisoned or two hundred of them, men and women alike, accused of wanting to unite their countryside with Russia. Ε The accusation does not rely on any evidence, but to save the appearance against the foreigner, the Hungarian government was reckless enough to flood the entire European press with false news, in which it published false quotes from the denominational dissident newspaper, Ruszkaia Provda.

The indictment is reserved for more than a hundred prisoners. Meanwhile, one woman died and four men became mentally ill. The main trial is now underway against the survivors.

These, and many other facts, more or less serious, all demonstrate the need for everyone, inspired by the idea of ​​progress, to unite, from the very end so that thought, word, and conscience prevail clearly and truly in morals and laws. the principle of his freedom, which, although the most beautiful achievement of modern intellectual life, is still far from being fulfilled today.

Done at Brussels, 28 January 1914.

On behalf of the Center for the International Federation of Free Thought, the Permanent Bureau:
Guilllaume Degreef, President.
Eugéne Hins, Secretary-General.

Issue Informations

Src: http://mtdaportal.extra.hu/szabadgondolat/1914/1914_02.pdf
Original Publication: Szabadgondolat, 4.2, February 1914
Other Languages:

Lge	Name
DE
FR	Libre Pensée 1914/2
ES	El Pensamiento Libre 1914/2