Péter Erdő
Cardinal, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and Primate of Hungary, Hungarian author From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Péter Erdő (Hungarian: Erdő Péter, pronounced [ˈɛrdøː ˈpeːtɛr]; born 25 June 1952) is a Hungarian cardinal of the Catholic Church who has served as the Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and Primate of Hungary since 2003.
Péter Erdő | |
---|---|
![]() Erdő at St. Stephen's Basilica, Budapest in 2011 | |
Province | Esztergom-Budapest |
See | Esztergom-Budapest |
Appointed | 7 December 2002 |
Installed | 11 January 2003 |
Predecessor | László Paskai, O.F.M. |
Other post(s) | Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria Nuova |
Previous post(s) |
|
Orders | |
Ordination | 18 June 1975 by László Lékai |
Consecration | 5 November 1999 by Pope John Paul II |
Created cardinal | 21 October 2003 by Pope John Paul II |
Rank | Cardinal-Priest |
Personal details | |
Born | Péter Erdő 25 June 1952 |
Nationality | Hungarian |
Denomination | Catholicism |
Motto | Initio non erat nisi gratia (In the beginning there was nothing but grace) |
Coat of arms | ![]() |
He was president of the Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe from 2006 to 2016. He was the relator general for the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome.
Erdő is reputed to have a special Marian devotion to Our Lady of Consolation. He is fluent in Hungarian (his native tongue), English, Italian, French, and Latin. He has also previously addressed congregations in Slovak.[1] Erdő is seen as a leading conservative candidate in the upcoming 2025 papal conclave,[2][3] and is one of five cardinals electors appointed by Pope John Paul II eligible to participate.
Biography
Summarize
Perspective

Erdő was born in Budapest on 25 June 1952,[4] the first of the six children of Sándor and Mária (née Kiss) Erdő. He studied at the seminaries of Esztergom and Budapest, and the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome (where he attained doctorates in both theology and canon law) with a doctoral dissertation on the philosophical and theological foundations of canon law in the writings of Nicholas of Cusa.[5][6] On 18 June 1975, Erdő was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop László Lékai, and was incardinated in the Archdiocese of Esztergom.[4] He worked as parochial vicar in Dorog, and then continued his studies in Rome from 1977 to 1980. For the next eight years, he taught as a professor of theology and canon law at the Seminary of Esztergom , and held guest lectures at several foreign universities. Erdő served in the Hungarian Episcopal Conference as Secretary of the Commission of Canon Law in 1986, and later as its president in 1999. In 1988, he began teaching theology at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, serving as rector from 1998 to 2003. Since 2005 he has been the Great Chancellor of the university.
On 5 November 1999, he was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Székesfehérvár and titular bishop of Puppi.[4] He received his episcopal consecration on 6 January 2000 from Pope John Paul II with Archbishops Giovanni Battista Re and Marcello Zago, OMI, acting as co-consecrators. Erdő was named Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest on 7 December 2002, a post which carries with it the title of Primate of Hungary.[4] Erdő became a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2007 and a full member in 2013.[7] In 2011, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Navarra (Spain).

Cardinal
Summarize
Perspective
He was created Cardinal-Priest of Santa Balbina by John Paul II in the consistory of 21 October 2003. He was the youngest member of the Sacred College until the appointment of Reinhard Marx in 2010.
Erdő was elected to a five-year term as president of the Hungarian Episcopal Conference in September 2005 and to a five-year term as president of the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe in October 2006. On 17 January 2009 he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture by Pope Benedict XVI,[8] and on 29 January 2011 of the Secretariat of State (Second Section).[9]
Erdő sponsored the Thirteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law in Esztergom, 3–9 August 2008.[citation needed] On 19 October 2011, the apostolic nunciature in Peru announced that he would undertake an apostolic visitation to intervene in the dispute between the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, Archbishop of Lima.[10]
On 18 September 2012, Erdő was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to be one of the Synod Fathers for the upcoming October 2012 Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization.[11]
On 14 October 2013, Erdő was named by Pope Francis to serve as the Relator General of the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which took place from 5 to 19 October 2014. The chosen theme is "The challenges of the family in the context of evangelization".[12] He resumed his appointment as Relator General when the Synod reconvened in October 2015.[13] In the 2015 book The Rigging of a Synod?, Vatican correspondent Edward Pentin claimed that Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri had pressured Erdő to soften the wording of his 2014 address to the Synod.[14] In 2015, Erdő's second address to the synod was described by journalists, such as Damian Thompson of The Spectator and John L. Allen Jr. of the Boston Globe, as more theologically conservative in its tone.[14][15]
As cardinal elector, Erdő participated of papal conclave 2005 and papal conclave 2013, which elected Benedict XVI and Francis. He has been mentioned as a possible candidate to be elected as the next Pope as of 2022,[16] and will be entitled to participate in the next conclaves until 2032, his 80th birthday. Specially in 2013, he had been mentioned as a possible candidate to be elected pope.[17]
In March 2023, his titular church was changed to Santa Maria Nuova after his previous titular church, Santa Balbina, was closed because of structural deterioration.[18]
Views
Summarize
Perspective
Cardinal Mindszenty
Erdő requested that the Hungarian Chief Prosecutor's Office legally, morally, and politically rehabilitate Cardinal József Mindszenty, his predecessor, who fought Hungary's Communist regime and was arrested by the country's Stalinist dictatorship, after which he sought refuge in the American embassy in Budapest. The Chief Prosecutor's Office ultimately rehabilitated Mindszenty in 2012 thanks to Erdő's intervention.[19] In 2006, he sent a letter of gratitude to U.S. President George W. Bush on the 50th anniversary of Cardinal Mindszenty's forced arrest because of the political support that Americans had given to Mindszenty at the time.[20]
Divorced and remarried Catholics
During a Vatican press conference in October 2014, Erdő expressed opposition to the idea of allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion.[21]
Migrants
During the 2015 European migrant crisis, Erdő said that taking in refugees would amount to human trafficking.[22][23]
Romani people
Erdő has written about the special socio-economic conditions of the Romani people and has openly wondered on the correct way to evangelize them.[24]
Church in Hungary
Erdő has focused on Hungary's need to restore its faith and hope, while celebrating Midnight Mass at St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest, to mark the Christmas holiday.[25]
Canon Law
In his 1989 monograph, Ministerium, munus et officium in Codice Iuris canonici, he argued that the three Latin terms, ministerium, munus and officium, had distinct meanings in the Code of Canon Law promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1983.[26]
Relationship with the Hungarian government
Erdő has spoken in support of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on some issues. He has argued that church's hosting of refugees would constitute human trafficking.[27] At the same time, he has signalled some disagreement with the government on other issues.[28]
Ancestors
Ancestors of Péter Erdő | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
See also
- Tamás Bakócz, another Hungarian serious candidate in the 1513 papal conclave
References
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.