On June 5 and 6, the “Sovereignty” ERC research group will organize the conference “The Catholic Church and the Political Oath from the Advent of the Modern State: Models, Practices, Conflicts” at HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities in Budapest. The goal of the event is to explore and analyze the bishops’ and archbishops‘ oath of allegiance as an essential aspect of state-church relations in Europe from the late 18th century until 1990.
Program
5 June 2025
10:00–11:00 Welcome Address and Keynote
Antal Molnár (HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Budapest, director)
Andreas Gottsmann (Austrian Historical Institute, Rome), Clergymen between loyalty and resistance. The Catholic Church in the transformation of the Habsburg Monarchy from Josephinism to the liberal constitutional state
11:00–11:30 Coffee break
11:30–12:45 Panel I — Chair: Nadia Kizenko (University at Albany SUNY)
Katalin Pataki (HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Budapest), Negotiating the Oath of Allegiance in the Habsburg Realms between 1781-1848
Roberto Regoli (Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome), Between God, the pope and men. The oaths of allegiance in the Papal States (1798-1814)
Discussant: András Forgó (University of Pécs)
12:45–13:45 Lunch break
13:45–15:15 Panel II — Chair: András Forgó (University of Pécs)
Miklós Tömöry (HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Budapest), Ensuring Loyalty – Maintaining Discretion. The Procedure and Institutional Framework of Catholic Bishops’ Oaths of Loyalty in the Kingdom of Hungary, 1867–1918
Tomasz Hen-Konarski (Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Warsaw; HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Budapest), Caught between the state and nation: Oaths of allegiance performed by Catholic clergymen in the territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 1860s
Siegfried Weichlein (University of Fribourg), The political oath between monarchy and republic: Changes and conflicted issues in Germany 1880-1930
Discussant Nadia Kizenko (University at Albany SUNY)
15:15–15:45 Coffee break
15:45–17:15 Panel III — Chair: Pál Hatos (University of Public Service, Budapest)
Scott Kenworthy (Miami University of Ohio), The Russian Orthodox Church between resistance and loyalty in Revolutionary Russia
Željko Oset (HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Budapest), Oaths of allegiance of catholic dignitaries in Yugoslavia (1919-1941)
Przemysław Pazik (HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Budapest; University of Warsaw), Between state and nation-building. Bishops’ oath of loyalty in Poland 1918-1939
Discussant: Éva Petrás (Office of the Committee of National Remembrance)
6 June 2025
10:00–10:45 Keynote
András Fejérdy (HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Budapest), The claim for loyalty in nationalist and trans-nationalist regimes. The political oath of the clergy in 20th-century Central and Eastern Europe
10:45–11:15 Coffee break
11:15–12:30 Panel IV — Chair: Éva Petrás (Office of the Committee of National Remembrance)
Agáta Šústová-Drelová (Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, Bratislava; HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Budapest), Bishops’ oath of Loyalty and the making of modern Czechoslovakia – cultural history approach.
Bernd Schaefer (Woodrow Wilson International Center, Washington DC), Bishop Oaths and other Forms of Church Loyalty to the State in Germany form 1933 to the Present
Discussant: Pál Hatos (University of Public Service, Budapest)
12:30–13:30 Lunch break
13:30–15:00 Panel V — Chair: Szilvia Köbel (Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Budapest)
Emília Hrabovec (Comenius University, Bratislava), Slovak Episcopate, the Holy See and the Oaths of Allegiance to the Czechoslovak Communist Regime as a Conflict over Loyalty and Sovereignty
Viktoriia Serhiienko (German Historical Institute, Warsaw), To Punish or to Forgive? The Vatican and Oaths from Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Priests to the Russian Orthodox Church in the First Post-WWII Years
Anca Şincan (HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Budapest), An economic allegiance for the Catholic Church: state salaries in exchange of loyalty to the state in communist Romania
Discussant: Ágnes Hesz (University of Pécs)
15:00–15:30 Coffee break
15:30–17:00 Panel VI — Chair: Ágnes Hesz (University of Pécs)
Stipe Kljaić (Croatian Institute of History, Zagreb), Clergy associations as a model of swearing the oath of allegiance to the political authorities in Tito’s Yugoslavia
Jan Hlebowicz (Institute of National Remembrance, Warsaw-Gdańsk), Priests’ oath of allegiance to the Polish People’s Republic as a tool of the communist authorities in the struggle against the Roman Catholic Church – causes, practices, consequences
András Fejérdy (HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, Budapest), A tool for the preparation of a schism or a tolerable adaptation of a traditional practice of history? The Holy See and the Bishops’ Oath in Hungary (1949-1964)
Discussant: Szilvia Köbel (Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Budapest)
Funded by the European Union (ERC SOVEREIGNTY 101044165). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.