In August 1996, the Hungarian Catholoc Church published an ancyclical for a more fair and fraternal world. Since then, it can be suspected that the church wants to take over the traditional role of the political left. The big question of teh future is, like in the past, whether the conservative, ideological-political role of teh church would be replaced by the need for a "social church" and the "service of society".

It is still a question to what extent the church provided support to society in periods of capitalist development, when exlusion, impoverishment and peripherisation were prominent features of social life. Can we count on charitative activities of the church, and under what conditions, during the contemporary socio-economic transformation?

Since the 16th Century pentecostalism is the first significant religious movement in Peru. The article shows how the emergence of this new tendency is linked to the neoliberal economic policies that have been prevailing since the 1980s.

The article describes the social activities of Christian communities from the 1st to 4th Centuries. The author examines the practical aspects of these activities, although he also outlines their ethical-ideological motivations.

The author presents how in the early 1930s the social doctrines of the churches were represented in the Hungarian catholic press. From the quotations and analysis it will be apparent that the church saw clearly the fatal conflict arising betwen capital and labour, the most dreadful consequence of which was rise of fascism.