The Cardinals

In a gloomy house in the Hungarian village of Felsopeteny, 45 miles northwest of Budapest, Josef Cardinal Mindszenty, free from prison these 15 months but not a free man, sat alone at dinner. People in the area knew the house as an atomic-research station of some mysterious sort: that was the explanation the Communists had given for the heavy armed guard that surrounded it. Mindszenty's guards paced about uneasily, and a Russian tank stood near by. Suddenly, out of the darkness a small band of young revolutionaries appeared, brandishing machine guns. Before their gun barrels, Mindszenty's guards quickly surrendered. The liberators broke in upon the surprised cardinal. With tear-filled eyes he said: "You are good Hungarian boys."

Thus, almost eight years after his trial and imprisonment on trumped-up treason charges, Cardinal Mindszenty, 64, Prince Primate of all Hungary and most famed prelate of the "Silent Church," last week came forth to freedom--a freedom that might prove tragically short-lived.

During the years of his captivity, his uneasy jailers had moved him from prison to prison to mislead possible rescuers. He was guarded by a cordon of political policemen, policewomen, police dogs and, lately, Russian tanks. During those years, the Communists strove with all their might to destroy the faith of Eastern Europe's 60 million Catholics. As Mindszenty went free, their failure was obvious to the world: the Church of Silence now spoke out with undimmed vigor.

Blessed Weapons. Mindszenty's rescuers whisked him to a nearby military barracks, where everyone broke out wine to celebrate his release. Early the next morning three armored vehicles escorted the cardinal over the battle-torn road to Budapest. In towns and villages along the way, people threw flowers before his car. The new Nagy government declared that the cardinal's trial and imprisonment had been entirely illegal, that his ecclesiastical rights as Primate of Hungary were restored. Before a cheering crowd at his palace, Mindszenty appeared, a small Hungarian tricolor pinned to his cassock. His ordeal had left his face drawn, and he was more stooped and grey than Hungarians remembered him, but his eyes were bright and alert. Machine-gun-toting young soldiers moved forward and solicitous!) placed a fur-lined coat over his shoulders to guard him from the crisp air.

"I bless the weapons of the Hungarians," said Mindszenty. "I trust that the glory acquired by Hungarian weapons will become greater yet should the need arise.' He was bitter about the West. "A thing which no one in the world, not even the big powers, dared to do, was done by small and forlorn Hungary. Our people started the fight for their faith in their country. The Hungarian people are waiting for the world, especially the big powers, whose business it should have been tc handle this affair, to stand up in action."

Four days later events gave terrible point to his words. It was the Russians who "stood up in action," sweeping intc Hungary with the full, brutal weight oi their armor. The cardinal took refuge in the U.S. embassy while the battle raged outside.

Have Faith. Two nights before Mindszenty's dramatic release by the Hungarian rebels, another Iron Curtain prelate was freed: Poland's Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski. Prodded by fervent demands for his release from all over Poland, the Gomulka regime sent emissaries to Wyszynski's monastery exile in the Carpathian Mountains to bring him back. Last week the cardinal was driven by a government sedan through a cold rain to the grey stone archbishop's palace in Warsaw. Next day, after meeting with clergy from all over Poland, he went out before the waiting crowds. They cheered, wept, sang "God protects Poland."

Wyszynski sounded more conciliatory than Mindszenty. Said he: "We have won. Have faith in God. I did. Through faith in God all things are possible ... I hope that quiet and secure times have now begun for you and your church. It is up to you to keep the peace."

Unlike Mindszenty, Cardinal Wyszynski had not even had a mock trial. After denouncing Poland's Red regime, he was arrested in 1953, simply disappeared from view. He, too, was moved constantly, was guarded at one time by 60 security police. The cardinals' steadfastness under persecution, Pope Pius XII had said, was "a spectacle of spectacles to the world, to angels and to men."

The Future. The Communists' much-feared indoctrination of youth had obviously been ineffective, for it was, principally, youth in both cases who triggered the satellite uprisings. While hope lasted that the independent regimes in Hungary and Poland might survive, Roman Catholics also hoped that the "national church" movements set up by Communist-coddled "peace priests" would collapse. Mindszenty, it was predicted, would be a powerful voice in the political life of the country. The new Polish regime promised to negotiate for the return of church property. But all such hopes were brutally shaken this week by the Russians.

Some 14 Catholic bishops or apostolic administrators in Poland are still imprisoned, detained, or barred from exercising their spiritual authority, and many nuns and priests are still imprisoned in the satellites. Archbishop Joseph Beran of Prague and Yugoslavia's Aloysius Cardinal Stepinac are held by the Communists. Both Cardinals Mindszenty and Wyszynski could again share the fate of those prisoners; the two cardinals' freedom might turn out to be only an episode. If so, it would not be forgotten. Like a sudden flash, it lighted up the dark scene and showed clearly the continuing, fervent faith of the satellite peoples.

Said Pope Pius XII: "It is necessary to pray now more than ever."

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