Hungarian Town Mourns Favorite Christian Aunt
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife
(Worthy News) – Károlyné Vass, a prominent Hungarian Christian teacher whose family suffered for their faith during Communism and who played a vital role in rebuilding her community, has died at age 98.
She became known as Babi Néni (Aunt Babi) while reviving volunteering and social consciousness for the elderly, founding one of Hungary’s most vibrant pension associations in 1989 in her town of Gödöllő.
The city, known for its Christian traditions and bringing forward Hungary’s first democratically elected opposition legislator under Communism, is a central Budapest suburb.
Not far from where Vass worked and lived is the Royal Palace, once the favorite of the late Queen Elisabeth of Hungary.
Later, occupying Soviet troops used it, but Vass never stopped believing that times would change. “We had great hope in 1956”, she once told a Worthy News reporter about the Hungarian Revolution crushed by Soviet forces.
Besides teaching and caring for pensioners, she also led the regional Red Cross for many years, her family said.
LIFE AND LOYALTY
Saturday’s funeral service in the Reformed Church was attended by the mayor, who awarded her honorary citizenship of the city before she passed away. He made clear that as a school teacher, she expressed her faith in Christ by encouraging her students. And, he said, she showed “loyalty” to God, her family, teaching, Gödöllő, the pensioners, and the Lutheran church.
That wasn’t always easy: Christian faith was discouraged under Communist dictatorship, and devoted Christians were persecuted. Mayor György Gémesi, who knew her from childhood, praised her dedication as a teacher, an opinion shared by other mourners, including former students and colleagues.
Vass and her family also impacted the thinking of church leaders, suggested Lutheran pastor Gábor Roszik, who was the first democratically elected opposition parliamentarian under Communism.
He recalled that his father was studying theology when he was welcomed and supported by Vass and her family, despite opposition from atheist Communist rulers. Vass also supported her mother, who was an evangelical missionary.
Roszik, who runs the care home where Vass spent her last years, noted that “she bore her age and illness with care and dignity.” She leaves behind her dedicated daughter Eszter, who supporter her activities, and grandchild Laura.
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