HUNGARY: End of the Other Road

Roman Catholic leaders are divided on how to meet oppression in Communist countries. One group counsels firm resistance to Communist pressure, even where resistance has no immediate chance of standing up against Communist police power; Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty, Primate of Hungary, who refused to make certain compromises with the Reds, is a symbol of this policy.

The second group, which is very influential in the Vatican, advocates a “policy of survival.” It holds that churchmen under Communism should make all possible compromises not directly contrary to essentials of their faith, in an effort to keep a light flickering in the darkness.

After Mindszenty was imprisoned, the Catholic churchmen of Hungary generally followed a “softer” policy than his bold defiance. Matyas Rakosi, the Red boss of Hungary, persuaded representatives of the Hungarian Bench of Bishops to enter into negotiations with him. Last August, the negotiators reached an agreement. Its terms are not certainly known in the West, but it is believed that the churchmen made concessions which Mindszenty had refused. The Hungarian Reds announced that the bishops had agreed to acknowledge and support Hungary’s Communist constitution. The Reds claimed that this agreement had been signed by Archbishop Joseph Grosz, Mindszenty’s successor as primate.

Last week the Reds disclosed a way of measuring how much survival value actually attaches to the “policy of survival.” Grõsz’s trial ended with his being sentenced to 15 years in prison. Mindszenty had been sentenced to life imprisonment. However, since Grõsz is 63 years old and in ill health, the difference would not appear to be of great practical importance.

Like Mindszenty, Grosz had “confessed” to an array of crimes, including treason. The free world is no longer baffled by these confessions. The American businessman, Robert Vogeler, explained them once & for all:

“There comes a time when a person . . believes that he is abandoned, that he will be killed in any case, and that an alleged confession will appear anyway, and so he signs the rubbish placed before him.”

In Prague last week after being held incommunicado for ten weeks, Associated Press Correspondent William Oatis was brought to trial. The Communists announced that Oatis had “confessed” to espionage.