At the opening of the school year for the Christian Roma College Network in the north-east Hungarian town of Nyíregyháza on Sunday, Minister of State for Social Affairs and Inclusion Károly Czibere said that instead of Roma and non-Roma citizens merely living alongside each other, we have a vested interest in actually living together, and “we think in terms of a common future”.

Quoting the Apostle Peter, he spoke about birth and growth, saying that the creation of the College is also a kind of birth, which should prompt students to meditate on its meaning and their individual challenges within it.

Mr. Czibere said that spiritual growth is just as important as birth, reminding the students that they should drink every day from the “life-giving spring”: the idea which led to the creation and establishment of the Christian Roma College. He said that the whole purpose of the college is to pass on knowledge in the spirit of openness towards one another.

He said that the College is “already host to a range of activities, but all participants – the College, the Ministry, the churches and the students – should seek answers to the main question: what is actually being built under the scaffolding”. He said that this was the way forward and the means of preventing uncertainty, malicious intent and “confusing Roma citizens with migrants”.

The inauguration of the school year was accompanied by an ecumenical mass, said by Evangelical Bishop Tamás Fabinyi and followed by a board meeting of the College attended by over 100 students from affiliated colleges across Hungary.

(Ministry of Human Capacities)