CARDINAL MINDSZENTY TELLS HIS STORY

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28159, 24 December 1956, Page 3

CARDINAL MINDSZENTY TELLS HIS STORY

Release, Brief Freedom, Then Flight From Soviet Troops BOLD RESCUE BY HUNGARIAN SOLDIERS I [By JOSEF CARDINAL MINDSZENTY, as told to FATHER JOSEF VECSEY) (World. Copyright New York Herald Tribune, Inc.) There was a tank in front of us leading the way and another behind us. The weather was fair and I rode in the open front of a troop carrier. Everywhere along the way the people had heard we were coming and had run to kneel or stand by the roadside and wave flags at me that I should bless them. Several times we stopped and I shook hands with people I had not seen for eight years and blessed them all. The Hungarian soldiers who were driving me, the officers and enlisted men alike, were full of hope and enthusiasm. In the early morning, before dawn when we started our journey from their barracks at Retsag I couldn’t help smiling at them, teasing them a little. “Well, my children,” I asked them, “what guarantee can you give me that you will take me to Budapest, that we will reach Buda safely?” At this the young soldiers grew very serious. “Nothing but our lives, sir,” they had answered me. “Nothing but our lives.” These were the same soldiers who had taken me from the Castle at Felsopeteny where I was a prisoner of the Bolsheviks and who had brought me the night before to their barracks in Retsag.

We had arrived at the barracks in the late afternoon of October 30 arid decided then to wait until morning before driving about 60 kilometres to Budapest. The tanks could not go very fast and the soldiers believed for safety that I should have their escort all the way into the city, because there was still much shooting in the country. I paid a short visit to the pastor of the town and then went back to the barracks where the soldiers were fixing dinner and were waiting to talk with me. They were all jubilant and felt sure that at last Hungary was going to be free again.

The soldiers asked me if it was true that I had been sick and had been cared for in a convalescent home. I told them that Rakosi had started these rumours and, for the first time in connexion with me, he had told even a half-truth. It was true that I had been very sick; but not one word was true about the convalescent home. As we talked, the news of my liberation reached the neighbouring villages and hundreds of people came to the barracks to see me and make sure that what they had heard was true. I showed myself to them and they all knelt on the ground which was hard with the cold. Many cried. Some cheered. I gave them all my blessing. With them came the auxiliary Bishop of Vac, Vincent Kovacs. He invited me to spend the night at the residence of the Bishop of Vac, who I knew was interned by the Communists. I asked, “Is my brother bishop at home?” “No,” said the auxiliary bishop.

“In that case,” I answered, “I cannot go to a home where the head of the family is missing. After he returns I am going to visit him.” Back Home In Budapest

Then at 9 a.m. on October 31 we were at my home on Uri Street in Budapest. It looked exactly the same as when I had left it in 1948. The front of the house on the second floor was still burned out and unrepaired. That floor had been ruined by the Russians when they shelled and bombed the city in 1945. Inside, the walls were very dirty a.id there was rubble in the courtyard. In the rooms there was only a few pieces of furniture and scarcely a rug. Many windows were broken. Among the throng which had gathered in front of my house to greet me I could see my old housekeeper, Mrs Bodor and Mr Bodor, my valet, who had lived all the time alone in the house while I was in prison and who were waiting for me. I went to the small chapel in my home to celebrate the Mass. The chapel was full of old friends and so was the courtyard of my residence. After Mass I called my auxiliary bishop, Imre Szabo, and gave instructions that all priests who had collaborated with the Communists be immediately suspended. I knew the names of most of the peace priests because the Bolshevik radio and newspapers had always been full of their activities. Before I was arrested I had given warning that while there could be some easing of the conscience of lay people who were forced to work with the Bolsheviks that this could not hold for priests. My rooms were full of people waiting to see me and it was suggested that I prepare a radio broadcast to the people. This time they would hear my voice as it came directly from me and not a tape recording that could be changed to make it say whatever the Bolsheviks wanted.

I do not hate anyone. I have no enemies and want only to live in peace with the world. I do not hate Russians. We want only to get rid of communism because it is wrong and denies God. There was talk about the United Nations, and I say this because I have great respect for the United Nations and its Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjold, even though I have only been able to hear about them through the Communist press and radio. Now, Hungary is free and this is the moment for the Secretary-General of the United Nations to come to

Budapest with a group of observers to see the success of the freedom fight. This would prevent the Russians from coming back and would ensure our freedom. One should not trust the Bolsheviks.

(Later, and in line with this same belief, the Cardinal spoke to some newsmen when this new freedom was about to be destroyed by the Russian re-entry into the city on November 4 and told them, “You do not throw words to a man who is drowning.” (After Mass that morning the Cardinal’s housekeeper had prepared breakfast for him but he refused it and told her it was the Vigil of All Saints and a day of fasting. But after he had worked a long time the housekeeper went ahead and killed a chicken which she had kept in the residence for its eggs and fixed lunch for the Cardinal. When he heard about it he looked at the housekeeper. She was uncertain. Then he said, “Well at least it is not a Friday and it is not a rigorous fast and I can eat meat” and then sat down to his meal, with the housekeeper and valet waiting on him. (When he was done eating he leaned back in his chair and said, “A most excellent meal for a prisoner. But after such a meal something is missing.” The old valet understood the Cardinal’s thought. He searched a desk and finally came back with a box of cigars the Cardinal had left behind eight years before. (The Cardinal opened the box and took out a cigar. Then very seriously he picked up a knife, cut the cigar in half and shared it with the old man. “A whole cigar is too much,” he said, “it might be too heavy for me.”) Hungarian Soldiers on Guard After my lunch there were still more people to receive. Some of them were priests and nuns. They all wore their religious clothing which they had not been allowed to wear for several years by the Communists. In most cases the clothing was torn, in bad repair and ill-fitting, but carried with pride. As I moved among them, I saw that the Hungarian soldiers were still in front of my house and I thought we should send them away unless someone should think we were afraid.

(Among those who came in delegations during the next two days were the leaders of several other religions in Hungary, and the Cardinal was glad there was such unity among them. Each -one made a public statement speaking of his groups’ pride in the freedom fighters and its desire to live at peace with the world. Among these callers were Bishop Lajos Ordas, of the Hungarian Lutheran Church, Bishop Laszlo Ravasz, of the Hungarian Reformed or Calvinist Church, and representatives of the Hungarian Israelites. (He also was kept busy organising the distribution of food and other help throughout the city. Often

truckloads of things came directly to the residence and he would order his housekeeper and others to see that it was distributed until there was none left. (The Cardinal stayed at his residence until the early morning oi November 4 after the Russians had already started their movement into the city. At that time, he was asked by Premier Nagy to come to the Parliament building about one mile away across the river. (As he left his residence to cross the Chain Bridge in the car which the soldiers had left for him, there was already shooting near the fortress. This is what the hill is called on which there are several government buildings and his residence. Escape From the Russians (As the Russians approached, a group of young Hungarian soldiers dashed to the Museum of Military History on the Fortress. There they loosened the cannons which had been used in the revolution of 1848 and ran the guns out through the ramparts. Through the same portholes they then fired their own rifles and pistols, and the Russians, thinking it was cannon fire, were delayed. (The Cardinal was not long in the Parliament building. He attended a dramatic session of the Cabinet, and it was clear that everything was lost. He talked with Nagy and others of what should be done. The Hussions were approaching the building “You must flee,” said Nagy. “Where?” asked the< Cardinal. “To the nearest diplomatic mission —the American Legation,” was Nagy’s answer. (The Cardinal rolled up his cassock so that he would not be recognised, and put on his overcoat. The three young Hungarians who had been in the building led the way. Three others walked behind him. They shielded him from the eyes of the Russians who were milling around the building. Their quick thinking probably saved his life.) Cardinal Mindszenty told Father Vecsey the story in several long conversations. For serialisation the context of these conversations has been generally arranged in chronological order. The paragraphs in brackets are connective, explanatory or descriptive passages, added by Father Vecsey. J (World Copyright Reserved)