Mindszenty, József

From New World Encyclopedia
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==References==
 
==References==
 +
*Aymar, Brandt, and Edward Sagarin. ''A Pictorial History of the World's Great Trials: From Socrates to Jean Harris''. New York: Bonanza Books, 1985. ISBN 9780517467930
 +
*Közi-Horváth, József. ''Cardinal Mindszenty: Confessor and Martyr of Our Time''. Chicester: Aid to the Church in Need (UK), 1979. ISBN 9780851727318
 +
*Mindszenty, József. ''Memoirs''. New York: Macmillan, 1974. ISBN 9780025850507
 +
*________________. ''The Face of the Heavenly Mother''. Dublin: Clonmore & Reynolds Ltd, 1955. {{OCLC|17968992}}
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==

Revision as of 15:43, 29 November 2008

Statue of Cardinal Mindszenty, New Brunswick, NJ

József Cardinal Mindszenty (March 29 1892—May 6 1975) was the head of the Catholic Church of Hundardy during the often brutal Stalinist persecution. An opponent of both Fascism and Communism, he was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Pius XII February 18, 1946.

After he refused to permit the Catholic schools of Hungary to be secularized the Communist government arrested him on charges of treason. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1949 after a show trial tainted by a confession under torture, generating world-wide condemnations including a resolution by the United Nations in his favor. He remained in prison until the Hungarian uprising of 1956 and later sought asylum in the U.S. embassy in Budapest, where he remained for another 15 years.

He became known as a steadfast supporter of religious freedom and opponent of Communism in Hungary.

Early years

Mindszenty was born József Pehm on March 29 1892, in Csehimindszent, Austria-Hungary. He became a priest on June 12, 1915. In 1917 the first of his books, Motherhood, was published. He was arrested under the socialist Mihály Károlyi government on February 9 1919, until the end of the communist Béla Kun government on July 31.

He adopted his new name – part of his home village's name – in 1941. He also joined the Independent Smallholders' Party in this period, in opposition to the fascist Arrow Cross Party. On March 25, 1944, he was consecrated bishop of Veszprém, considered a distinguished post because the town traditionally belonged to the queens of Hungary. With Hungary under fascist control, was arrested on November 26, 1944, this time for his opposition to the Arrow Cross government, and charged with treason. In April 1945, he was released from prison.

Church leader and opposition to communism

On September 15, 1945 Mindszenty was appointed Primate of Hungary and Archbishop of Esztergom, the seat of the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary. On February 18, 1946 he was elevated to the office of cardinal by Pope Pius XII and associated with the titular church of Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome.

In 1948, the Communist government of Hungary banned religious orders, and on December 26 1948, Mindszenty was arrested and accused of treason, conspiracy and offenses against the current, Soviet-insired laws of Hungary. Knowing of the possibility of his arrest he earlier wrote a note to the effect that he had not been involved in any conspiracy and that any confession he would make would be the result of duress. While he was in prison, he was relentlessly tortured in order to coerce a confession for "crimes against the state."

His trial began on February 3 1949. On February 8, Mindszenty was sentenced to life imprisonment for treason against the Hungarian government. The Communists released what they called a "Yellow Book," a listing of confessions extorted from Mindszenty under torture. At his trial he declared the note he had written about statements made under duress to be null and void.

On February 12 1949, Pope Pius XII announced the excommunication of all persons involved in the trial and conviction of Mindszenty. In his apostolic epistle Acerrimo Moerore, the pope publicly expressed his solidarity with the suffering Hungarian Church and condemned the mistreatment and jailing of Mindszenty, making the cardinal an international symbol of opposition to Communist totalitarianism.

During the Hungarian Revolution, Mindszenty was released from prison on October 30 1956 and returned to Budapest the next day. On November 2, he praised the insurgents, and on the following day he made a radio broadcast in favor of recent developments.

Confinement at the US embassy

When the Soviets invaded Hungary again on November 4, Mindszenty sought democratic leader Imre Nagy's advice, and was granted political asylum at the US embassy in Budapest. Mindszenty lived for the next 15 years in the US embassy, at first because faced immediate and certain arrest and later because he refused to leave the country until the Hungarian government rescinded his conviction. His status as a prisoner of conscience, meanwhile, was becoming an embarrassment to the Vatican, which sought to improve relations with the Hungarian government. Mindszenty's presence also inconvenienced the US government, because the Budapest embassy was already overcrowded, his quarters took valuable floor space and a permit for expansion could not be obtained from the Hungarian authorities unless the primate was expelled.

File:Esztergom Mindszenty Museum.JPG
The Mindszenty Museum in Esztergom

Eventually Pope Paul VI offered a compromise declaring Mindszenty a "victim of history" (instead of communism) and annulled the excommunication imposed on his political opponents. Mindszenty finally exited the embassy area on September 28, 1971. After a brief stay at the Vatican, he settled in Vienna, Austria, as he took offense at Rome's advice that he should resign from the primacy of the Hungarian Roman Catholic Church in exchange for a Vatican-backed uncensored publication of his memoirs. Although most bishops retire at or near age 75, Mindszenty continuously denied rumors of his resignation and pointed out that he was not canonically required to step down at the time. In a visit to the United States in 1973, Mindszenty publicly thanked the United States for supporting his efforts against communism and gave his blessing to several anti-communist groups such as the Hungarian Freedom Fighters, the Freedom Leadership Foundation, and the Catholic group named in his honor, the Cardinal Mindzenty Foundation. In December 1973, at the age of 82, Mindszenty was stripped of his titles by Pope Paul VI, who declared the Hungarian cardinal's seat officially vacated, but refused to fill the seat while Mindszenty was still alive.

Mindszenty died on May 6, 1975, at the age of 83, in exile in Vienna. In 1991, his remains were repatriated to Esztergom by the newly democratically elected government and buried in the basilica there.

Legacy

Memorial to Mindszenty in Santiago, Chile

In early 1976 the pope created bishop László Lékai to be the primate of Hungary, ending a long struggle with the communist government. Lékai turned out to be quite cordial towards the Kádár government.

Mindszenty is widely admired in modern-day Hungary, and no one denies his courage in opposing the Nazi and Nyilas gangs, or his resolve during his confinement. However, to his critics on the left, Mindszenty is seen as the archetypal figure of "clerical reaction." The pro-Soviet government of János Kádár used his 1956 support of the Hungarian Revolution as "proof" of dominant "clerical-imperialist" influence in the October 1956 events and as evidence that the uprising was "counter-revolutionary" in nature. His contemporary detractors point out that he continued to use the feudal title of prince-primate even after the Hungarian parliament outlawed the use of noble titles 1946 parliament. Like the rest of the Catholic hierarchy of the time, he did not believe in a separation of church and state and fought fiercely against secularization of church-run primary and secondary schools. His alleged aristocratic attitude and continued claims for compensation for the nationalization of church-owned farmlands alienated some groups of the Hungarian society, which was composed of a majority of agricultural workers at the time. He also expressed opinions in opposition to the reforms of Vatican II. [1]

Despite his conservatism, however, Mindszenty remains a potent symbol of opposition to Nazism and Communism, and a great example of resistance to totalitarian repression of religious freedom.

A commemorative statue of Cardinal Mindszenty stands in at St. Ladislaus Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S. on Somerset Street. He is also remembered in Chile, with a memorial in the same park (Parque Bustamante) in which a monument to the martyrs of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution stands.

His beatification and eventual canonization has been on the agenda of Hungarian Catholic church ever since Communism fell in 1989. The pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI is seen by many analysts as representing an outstanding opportunity for Mindszenty to be recognized as a saint, since the pope has commented favorably on Mindszenty's calling.

In Film

Mindszenty's life and battle against the Soviet dommination of Hungary and Communism were the subject of the 1950 film Guilty of Treason which was, in part, based on his personal papers and starred Charles Bickford as the Cardinal.

Notes

  1. Chip Berlet, "Cardinal Mindszenty: Heroic Anti-Communist or Anti-Semite or Both?" The St. Louis Journalism Review, Vol. 16, No. 105, April 1988.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Aymar, Brandt, and Edward Sagarin. A Pictorial History of the World's Great Trials: From Socrates to Jean Harris. New York: Bonanza Books, 1985. ISBN 9780517467930
  • Közi-Horváth, József. Cardinal Mindszenty: Confessor and Martyr of Our Time. Chicester: Aid to the Church in Need (UK), 1979. ISBN 9780851727318
  • Mindszenty, József. Memoirs. New York: Macmillan, 1974. ISBN 9780025850507
  • ________________. The Face of the Heavenly Mother. Dublin: Clonmore & Reynolds Ltd, 1955. OCLC 17968992

External links

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