Jozef Horváth

“I used to serve at the altar as a Franciscan. We had a group named Young Franciscans. We were wearing Franciscan robes, but only in the church, up by the altar. Once the policemen took our abbot, it was sometime in 1956 – 1957. They took him and we never saw him again. We had to take off our Franciscan clothes and that's when I became the biggest anticommunist. But you don't know why. When I undressed, they took me in front of the church's gate and I was scared to death. They dragged me there, I fell on the sidewalk, scratched my hands and everything. That's when I began to hate the society I grew up in. We were attending also religious education until the 9th grade as kids, but our father had many troubles because of that. He was even investigated by the State Security as a man saddled with religion and the whole family as well.”

“Well, at work my superiors told me: 'You are young and perspective expert. You should join the party!' We were sitting together at some kind of committee, when I told them: 'Comrades, I am not so politically aware to be worthy of joining such people as yourselves.' They understood back then why I didn't explain my reasons to them. I simply told them I don't consider myself to be mature enough. This occurred when they wanted to nominate me as a party candidate, I think. It took place at the city Institute of the National Health, sometime in the beginning of 1980s.”