CARDINAL FORCED BY SECRET INFLUENCES AT ARTIFICIAL TRIAL

Grey River Argus, 17 February 1949, Page 5

CARDINAL FORCED BY SECRET INFLUENCES AT ARTIFICIAL TRIAL

The Pope Condemns Hungarian Government

VATICAN CITY, Feb. 15

Pope Pius Xil, at an extraordinary secret Consistory attended by sixteen Cardinals expressed his deep grief over the trial of Cardinal Mindszenty. The Pope said that Hungary had “m llicted the greatest dishonour” on Cardinal Mindszenty and had violated the sacred rights of the Church. He said that Cardinal Mindszenty nad been forced to his confession and he called the trial “artificial and captious.”

“The trial is inexplicable, except as a result of secret influences which may not be publicly revealed,” he continued. -To prove this, there is the fact that a man endowed with full vigour and a forceful nature suddenly appeared such a weak and mentally uncertain person that his behaviour appeared as an accusation, not against himself, but against those who accused and condemned him.

The unanimous concern of the free peoples, expressed in speeches and writings even by those not related to the Roman Catholic Church, has been given the fullest light of publicity. r>ut the tub light of publicity did not ihme over the trial. In fact, from the beginning, the news that arrived caused alarm. People outside Hungary who sought permission to be present at the trial were refused permission if they seemed likely to fudge impartially oi; give a sincere report. “We have deemed it especially our duty to brand as completely false the assertion made in the course of the trial that the whole question at issue was that this Apostolic See, in furtherance of a plane for political domination of the nation, gave instructions to oppose the Republic of Hungary and its rulers.” WELLINGTON CATHOLICS SUPPORT N.Z. PROTEST WELLINGTON, Feb. 16 Supporting the criticism by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, of the trial of Car dinal Mindszenty, Primate of Hungary, Catholic congregations throughout the Wellington archdiocese have passed resolutions condemning the trial and the alleged illtreatment of the Cardinal. Further resolutions of the same kind have been passed by Catholic sodalities, and it is intended that some of them shall be forwarded to memof Parliament.

“It is only right,” said Archbishop McKee l ev in a sermon in the Basilica. Thorndon, “that in sneaking of those who have raised courageous voice.-? we must think of our own Prime Minister. Mr Fraser, whose measured sentences brought consolation for all of us, for then we knew that our Government was mindful of its trust, and was loval to ideals that seem to be escaping the vision of too many todav.

“Cardinal Mindszenty is one. Others have preceded him. Others will share the same fate. Let. us pray that God will strengthen and' console all victims ot persecution be they in Hungary or, as the latest, in Bulgaria, for all alike commit but one crime—they obey God rather than man ”