Hungary’s President Praises Church for Sheltering East Germans

(ANS) – Members of a Catholic church in Budapest saw Sunday, August 15, for the first time a sculpture honoring their congregation’s involvement in sheltering thousands of East Germans fleeing Communism, a move historians say eventually brought down the Berlin Wall. When unveiling the sculpture, entitled “Granting Shelter”, President Madl said the church and the Maltese Order had made history with their decision of August 1989 to support the refugees, at a time when Hungary’s Communist government was still choosing between expelling them or recognizing the East Germans as ‘asylum seekers’.