Bishop Balog refuses to resign over the paedophile pardon case

A pro-government intellectual believes the Calvinist bishop should quit after President Novák appeared to have pardoned the helper of a paedophile offender partly under his influence.

Bishop Zoltán Balog conceded that he had made a mistake when supporting the pardon plea but said an overwhelming majority of a body of church officials voted for him to stay. Two of the three Calvinist bishops, however, urged him to resign and an increasing number of pastors have started to direct part of their salaries to charities, as long as he remains in office.

On HIRTV, László L. Simon, a former State Secretary for cultural affairs said the leading bishop of the Calvinist Church should tender his resignation, since it was him who convinced the President of the Republic to grant the pardon. Ms Novák’s decision to resign was the right one, Simon added, and since the bishop admitted his fault, he should have followed suit. (Simon was dismissed as director of the National Museum three months ago because he allowed minors to visit the World Photo exhibition where a few pictures figured a gay Latin American old age home. See BudaPost, November 13,2023)

Tags: Balog, Novák, paedophilia