ABSTRACT
The travails of Jozsef Cardinal Mindszenty, the late leader of Hungarian Catholicism, reflected in many ways the experience of the Hungarian Catholic Church and the Hungarian nation from the end of the Second World War to this day, so it is right to begin this chapter with an assessment of Mindszenty's role. Although the Roman Catholic Church numerically constituted only 68% of the population, Mindszenty became a symbol of the Hungarian people, a fountain of Hungarian nationalism, Additionally, he was a hero for millions of people in Western countries. He was viewed as a courageous and unbending opponent of Communism and Communist dictatorship, a man who unflinchingly defended Catholicism and Hungarian tradition against religious persecution and Soviet imperialism. He was lauded by the Vatican and heralded by Western intellectuals. 1 On May 6, 1975, Cardinal Mindszenty died in Vienna, a lonely old man, estranged from his archepiscopal see, deserted by the Vatican, and criticized by not a few Western commentators. Many obituaries and review articles were, although distantly sympathetic to his agonies, rather disapproving and critical. George Schöpflin, for example, writing a eulogistic review of Mindszenty's Memoirs, claimed that the Cardinal was a man of principle, of courage, and one who suffered hideously at the hands of the Communists but, "in the final analysis, he achieved nothing." 2 He was accused roundly of being out of step with the times. Hungary after the Second World War had changed and, so the argument went, the Cardinal had not--he was still attempting, even up to his death, to revive in Hungary a socio-political-economic order that was passé.
