The cross and the ring

At the dawn of September 28 forty years ago ended the second chapter of the Calvary of József Mindszenty, that began in the tragic days of the Hungarian revolution of 1956, when the cardinal primate of Hungary was forced to seek refuge in the Embassy of the United States in Budapest from Communist authorities that would arrest him on the grounds of a life sentence inflicted with a show trial in 1949. In fact, that conviction – and sentence – had not been rescinded. He had already suffered seven years of hard prison, marked by all kinds of moral and physical tortures. It was the first chapter, the most horrible and tragic chapter, of what was to be a long Calvary. The Embassy granted him asylum, which was authorised telegraphically in thirty minutes’ time by president Eisenhower himself. Mindszenty’s confinement to a wing of the American diplomatic seat in Budapest was to last fifteen years. Formally he was free, but he still was a guest, and sometimes, especially in the last period, he was a “cumbersome” guest, because of the inevitable political implications linked to his case. The grounds leading to a solution were carefully prepared by Msgr. Agostino Casaroli, the architect of the Ostpolitik, while Msgr. József Zágon, Hungarian prelate at the service of the Roman Curia for a long time, was tasked with conducting the negotiations on behalf of the Holy See, as of June 1971. The question then was not whether to continue negotiations with Hungarian authorities, which at that point were willing to pardon him – a proposal scornfully rejected by Mindszenty – to close the case and free themselves of an awkward presence. Instead, it was a matter of convincing the Cardinal, who opposed all deals with the Communist government (and rightfully so!) to accept the sacrifice to leave Hungary and settle down in the Vatican or in other nations on the other side of the Iron Curtain. A compromise solution was reached (committing the Holy See, not Mindszenty) and the date of the departure for Rome was fixed: September 28 1971. It was not by chance: two days later the Second General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops opened in Saint Peter’s. “At 8.30 – Mindszenty recalls in his Memoirs ­ – I descended the stairs leading to the ground floor of the Embassy, separating the clerks’ offices. I walked out the main door, headed towards Freedom Square with Ambassador Puhan. I extended my hand to him. I raised my arms and blessed the capital and the entire Country. I followed Monsignor Zágon to the car of the nuncio to Vienna, Msgr. Rossi. A physician and Msgr. Cheli entered the other car. Thus, escorted by the secret police, we silently abandoned Budapest. Headed towards Györ, we reached the border. As I was near Hegyeshalom, through the car window I gave a quick glance at the ‘Iron Curtain’ and was shocked by it”. That was the last, bitter farewell to the Land of Magyars. At 13:00 hrs, in Vienna, an Alitalia flight took off to with destination Rome. The cardinal and his accompaniers, joined by Msgr. Casaroli were on board. The “director” of the whole operation was waiting for Mindszenty inside the airport. As soon as they landed in Rome, the Secretary of State cardinal Villot boarded the plane to welcome the primate of Hungary. In the Vatican, at the Tower of Saint John, the Holy Father awaited him. Paul VI greeted and embraced Mindszenty, took off his own ring and slipped in onto the cardinal’s finger. He hung his own pectoral cross around his neck, and then accompanied him to his apartment. At the opening Mass of the Synod, Paul VI, who called him to concelebrate, said: “After many years of forced absence, the Revered brother, Cardinal József Mindszenty, Archbishop of Esztergom, Hungary, has returned to Rome, and he is here with us today… a guest we have awaited with longing … a symbol of unshakeable strength rooted in faith and in selfless devotion to the Church, first with generous work and with caring love, with prayer and with long-endured suffering”.That second chapter was closed, but the pain of heroic Cardinal Mindszenty was to linger on. It was the beginning of the third chapter, the most painful of his Calvary, as it implied a definitive exile, the impossibility to see his Hungary once again, a renunciation – imposed in the best interest of the Church – to the title and the office of the Archbishop of Esztergom. On February 5 1974, ensuing an exchange of letters with the cardinal, Paul VI was to reach the only possible conclusion: to declare the primatial seat of Esztergom vacant and the archbishop Mindszenty deposed. It was a suffered decision, taken by the Pope, with a bleeding heart. That decision added further expanded the wounds inflicted by the long Calvary suffered by the Hungarian primate, on which he eventually conveyed repeated clarifications. As Cardinal Silvestrini told SIR Europe some time ago: “The Pope’s suffered decision was dictated in the name of the supreme interest of the Church, which at times requires equally supreme sacrifices. That of Mindszenty was a cross that Paul VI decided to carry on his own shoulders”.