ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to present and analyse the transformation of religious life in Hungary in the decades after the fall of socialism between 1990 and 2020. This chapter discusses the most significant features of religious orders in Hungary after the collapse of socialism. Between 1990 and 2020, my research focused on the personal motivations of those entering and staying within religious orders, preconceptions and realities of the consecrated life, recruitment, changes in ministry, changes in generations of governance and its impact on religious life, the question of structural change, possible new directions in a static, over-institutionalised Church and on the difficulties of the orders within the Church and civil society. Research methods were multi-modal: written document analysis, repeated cross-sectional surveys with questionnaires and structured interviews. The data analyses were carried out in historical-sociological perspective.
My research has revealed that in the last 30 years, social mobility within church membership had been rapid. The majority of new members were older, had completed higher education, were mostly from families with a religious background and they came from an urban rather than a rural setting. Dedication of their lives to God, personal spiritual growth and community life were the primary reasons for entering religious orders. According to interviews with superiors and the masters of novices in 1997, the beginning of the restoration of religious life in Hungary, newcomers’ expectations of religious orders and the religious life were based on romantic ideas, books or films about it, rather than on actual experience. In 2012, more than 20 years after the restitution of religious orders, having already experienced the routines of that new life, they had become more visible and were recognised through their activities in civil society. Their open-door programmes provided opportunities for people interested in the religious life to get know them better before they entered. Tradition still played a large role in the ministry. The most challenging aspect of governance was that of finding suitable persons to act as superiors and in keeping a balance between traditional practices, charisma, modernisation and the problem of ageing members and decreasing numbers.
