Tárogató, 1949-1950 (12. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1949-07-01 / 1-2. szám
6 TÁROGATÓ TÁROGATÓ A Canadian Magyar Monthly Edited by A. CZAKŐ, Ph.D. 438 Jarvis St., Apt. 804, Toronto 5, Canada Published by The United Church of Canada Printed by THE CHRISTIAN PRESS, LIMITED 672 Arlington St., Winnipeg, Man., Canada Authorized as second class mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa. of any practical consequence could we find and certainly we never heard of any which were allegedly committed by an unknown country-town priest who happened to be president of the local club of the Awakening Magyars and whose name was Joseph Mindszenty. This is a negative proof, but the Jews who watched the events because their own skin was at stake, put it in a positive way when they assert that the parish priest Joseph Mindszenty actually helped several Jews while he was president of the Awakening Magyars in his town. Yet the communist accusers propagandized this beneficial role of Mindszenty in a way which is scarcely correct from the logical point of view. As they say, “Since many Awakening Magyars were scoundrels, and since Mindszenty was one of them... ” and so on. But is can be proved that their illogical reasoning is at the same time a pure falsehood. Yet they needed this falsehood; they had to return to a long-past chapter of this unfortunate man’s life and had to distort it, because they had to defame his character in any likely way (apart from their belief in the force of accumulated charges). The real purpose of this accusation, which has absolutely nothing to do with the charges brought against him at his trial, cannot serve any other purpose than to compromise him in the eyes of those who follow him. We should keep this incident in mind; it will be significant in the light of what comes later. II The Horthy era, like the Hapsburg era, ended with a defeat in war, the second World War. This war brought political chaos into Hungarian political life and adventurers backed by Nazi Germany became the principal figures in it. Hungary came under the pressure of Nazism and was made a tool of Nazi Imperialism. Hungary was forced to turn against her ally, Jugoslavia, with whom she had a treaty of friendship, and had to turn against the Jews. As a compensation and to flatter her nationalistic spirit, she was given back some of her previous territories in the succeeding states, in Slovakia, Transylvania and Jugoslavia. It is in this period that the comparatively unknown parish priest became the Bishop of Veszprém. He was made bishop by the Pope. This statement sounds self-evident in America but it had a particular significance in Hungary. The former rulers of Hungary, the Hapsburgs, were bearers of the title of Apostolic King. It was not a mere title, it carried its privileges. One of them was the nomination of bishops in their realm. This occurred on the recommendation of the Cabinet, hence primary requirements were political reliability and devotion to the Imperial Court. Since the aristocracy fulfilled the latter requirement eminently for the sake of its own survival, the fact that one was a count and entered the priesthood was almost synonymous with becoming a bishop. Without trying to say anything against these Court-nominated bishops, one thing was quite obvious: they were not outstanding leaders of what the Church calls “Catholic Action”. They lived in comfort, attended important Catholic meetings and Court balls in their splendour, but otherwise disturbed as little water as possible. This situation changed completely when, in the absence of an Apostolic King, the Pope himself nominated the leaders of the clergy. Men of impeccable religious and moral life became bishops, who were willing to step into the stream of political and cultural life and who, both on account of their ecclesiastical dignity and of their outstanding human personality were honoured not only by Catholics but by Hungarians in general. Their name, formerly so important, meant nothing; personality meant everything.
