Miklós Lukáts
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Miklós Péter Lukáts (27 March 1946 – 30 October 2022) was a Hungarian
Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
minister and politician who served in the
National Assembly of Hungary The National Assembly ( ) is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 199 (386 between 1990 and 2014) members elected to four-year terms. Election of members is done using a semi-proportional representation: a mixed-member m ...
from 1990 until 1994. A founding member of the Christian Democratic People's Party, Lukáts was a key figure in the
end of communism in Hungary Communist rule in the People's Republic of Hungary came to an end in 1989 by a peaceful transition to a democratic system. After the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was suppressed by Soviet forces, Hungary remained a communist country. As the ...
and oversaw the transition in Hungarian religious policy in his position as State Secretary for Church Affairs.


Biography

Miklós Lukáts was born on 27 March 1946 in the city of
Szombathely } Szombathely (; ; also see #Etymology, names) is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas County in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria. Szombathely lies by the streams ''Perint'' and '' ...
,
Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
. Lukáts's father died when he was young, and he was primarily raised by his grandfather, a former judge who remained politically active. Lukáts and his grandfather would frequently talk about politics, and Lukáts credited this for his interest in politics. Though initially trained as an
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
, Lukáts became the
presbyter Presbyter () is an honorific title for Christian clergy. The word derives from the Greek ''presbyteros'', which means elder or senior, although many in Christian antiquity understood ''presbyteros'' to refer to the bishop functioning as overseer ...
of the in 1971, a position he would hold for decades. In the late 1980s, Lukáts was a key figure in the
end of communism in Hungary Communist rule in the People's Republic of Hungary came to an end in 1989 by a peaceful transition to a democratic system. After the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was suppressed by Soviet forces, Hungary remained a communist country. As the ...
. In 1988, he became a founding member of the , a political organization which would serve as a workshop for
Christian democratic Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...
politics. The following year, Lukáts and other members of the Áron Márton Society refounded the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP), with Lukáts becoming its national organizing secretary. In the
1990 Hungarian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 25 March 1990, with a second round of voting taking place in all but five single member constituencies on 8 April. They were the first completely free and competitive elections to be held in the cou ...
, Lukáts was elected to the
National Assembly of Hungary The National Assembly ( ) is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 199 (386 between 1990 and 2014) members elected to four-year terms. Election of members is done using a semi-proportional representation: a mixed-member m ...
via the KDNP party list, becoming one of 21 KDNP candidates elected. He did not seek re-election in the
1994 Hungarian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 8 May 1994, with a second round of voting in 174 of the 176 single member constituencies on 29 May.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p899 Nohlen & Stöve ...
. During his tenure in parliament, Lukáts was heavily involved with shift in religious policy following the end of communism, which saw the abolished and no office established to replace it. Lukáts was appointed a state secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Public Education on 1 June 1990; in this role, Lukáts oversaw the introduction of religious education in Hungary. He held this position until 14 September 1990, when Prime Minister
József Antall József Tihamér Antall Jr. (, ; 8 April 1932 – 12 December 1993) was a Hungarian teacher, librarian, historian, and statesman who served as the first democratically elected prime minister of Hungary, holding office from May 1990 until his d ...
appointed him to the as State Secretary for Church Affairs. As state secretary, Lukáts's primary task was to oversee the transfer of church properties that had been seized during communist rule back to their original owners, and he was to serve as a "connecting link between the government and the churches". During his tenure, Lukáts was one of the organisers for visits by
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...
and the
14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (born 6 July 1935; full spiritual name: Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, shortened as Tenzin Gyatso; ) is the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He served a ...
to Hungary. He also held negotiations with the
World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodo ...
and the government of Switzerland regarding the Hungarian Reformed Church. Lukáts served in this role until he left parliament in 1994. While in parliament, Lukáts also served on the Environmental Protection Committee. On 25 March 1992, the day after the opening ceremony of the European Protestant Convention in
Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
, Lukáts formed the KDNP Protestant Workshop, a parliamentary organization which sought to "promote the participation of Protestants in public life" and to "provide a political alternative to non-Catholic Christians". Lukáts served as the workshop's chairman from its founding until 1996. After leaving parliament, Lukáts became a Lutheran minister, and he served as a member of the national presbytery from 1992 to 2000. In 2019, Lukáts was awarded the of the
Hungarian Order of Merit The Hungarian Order of Merit () is the fourth highest State Order of Hungary. Founded in 1991, the order is a revival of an original order founded in 1946 and abolished in 1949. Its origins, however, can be traced to the Order of Merit of the K ...
by President
János Áder János Áder (; born 9 May 1959) is a Hungarian politician and lawyer who served as President of Hungary from 2012 to 2022. He is a long-time politician of the Right-wing politics, right-wing Fidesz. As a representative of his party, he took par ...
for "his role in putting the relationship between the church and the state on a new footing, as well as in initiating the property settlement of church properties". Lukáts died from an illness on 30 October 2022 at the age of 76.


Personal life

He was the son of Rezső and Borbála Medveczky. In 1970, he married Ágnes Juhász. They had two sons together, Péter Lukáts in 1971 and Tamás Lukáts in 1977, who are musicians in the Hungarian psychobilly band . Lukáts was the great-grandson of Béla Medveczky, who took part in the
Hungarian Revolution of 1848 The Hungarian Revolution of 1848, also known in Hungary as Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 () was one of many Revolutions of 1848, European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in ...
.


References


Citations


Works cited

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lukáts, Miklós 1946 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Hungarian architects Hungarian Lutheran clergy Hungarian Lutherans Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1990–1994) Christian Democratic People's Party (Hungary) politicians Recipients of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary Place of death missing People from Szombathely