BUDAPEST TRIAL

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25735, 22 February 1949, Page 5

BUDAPEST TRIAL

DEMONSTRATION IN VATICAN CITY VATICAN CITY, February 20. Thousands of Roman Catholics flocked to St. Peter’s square in Vatican City for a mass demonstration called by the Pope against the sentence passed on Cardinal Mindszenty. The streets leading to St. Peter’s were jammed with a- solid mass of people. Catholic Action groups of the Rome diocese formed parades in the centre of Rome and marched, singing, along the mile and a half route to St. Peter’s. Young men in groups carried flags and cardboard posters. Typical slogans were “The Chains of Cardinal Mindszenty are jewels in the uf St. Peter,” and “The Chains of Cardinal Mindszenty Shine Like the Crown of Christ.”

The Pope, speaking fyom a specially erected altar, told the demonstrators: "The sentence passed on the Danube on an eminent cardinal of the Christian world has evoked on the Tiber a cry of indignation worthy of the centre of Christianity. The sentence on Cardinal Mindszenty is not an isolated case, but is an incident in a chain of acts directed against the doctrine of the Christian Church. Persecutors, as never before, are using the progress of science to exterminate not only their chosen victims, but also those who are defending their homeland and human society.” The Pope’s speech was broadcast throughout the world by the Vatican radio. It was preceded by Pontifical Mass in St. Peter’s, celebrated by the Pope, with another High Mass • sung at a temporary altar on the Cathedral steps. Many of the crowd of 250.000 which overflowed the square waited for hours to hear the Pope.