"Canada’s
Churches and the Reception and Integration of Hungarian Refugees,
1956-57.”
Hungarian Studies
Association of Canada (HSAC)
York University (Toronto)
Congress of the Humanities and Social
Sciences
May 2006
This paper examines the attitudes of Canadian churches and faith
communities to the arrival of nearly 40,000 Hungarians to Canada
between November 1956 and June 1957. The essay explains the outreach
efforts of various denominations--including both Hungarian-Canadian and
English and French communities--with an emphasis on the activities of
the Catholic Church, the United Church of Canada and Jewish
congregations.
Tending to the needs of tens of thousands of refugees and offering
various social welfare programs was a daunting task, especially for
Canada's existing Hungarian churches and congregations. Nevertheless,
the arrival of such a large wave of Hungarians brought with it the
promise of renewal for stagnating communities. For some French-Canadian
Catholics--most notably for the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society-- Hungarian
refugees also meant the introduction to Québec of a significant
non-Catholic, 'alien' population and this prospect caused a degree of
consternation.
This paper presents the different approaches applied by various
religious communities to the problem of first accepting and then
integrating Hungarian refugees after the failed 1956 revolution. The
paper also offers a comparative study between the attitudes of the
generally conservative Catholic establishment, the traditionally more
liberal and multicultural United Church of Canada and Jewish
communities in Montreal and Toronto.
Christopher Adam