Mindszenty’s Remains Are Brought Home
The body of Cardinal Josef Mindszenty, a symbol of the Roman Catholic Church’s suffering under communism, was brought home to Hungary for reburial Friday, 20 years after he went into reluctant exile.
The coffin of the late Hungarian primate was borne in a solemn cortege from Mariazell in Austria, where he died in 1975 at the age of 83.
Hungarian villagers holding flowers and photographs of Mindszenty lined the route to the basilica at Esztergom where he will be interred in the crypt today.
Mindszenty, an arch-foe of communism, was tortured and jailed for life in 1949 on trumped-up espionage charges of which he was later exonerated.
His arrest followed his opposition to the seizure of church lands and schools.
He was released in 1956 during the Budapest uprising against the Stalinist regime but fled to asylum in the U.S. Embassy when the uprising was crushed by Soviet tanks.
He stayed in the embassy, a virtual recluse, for 16 years until ordered to leave for the West by Pope Paul in 1971.
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