According to one of the accusations in the trial against the prince-primate, the cardinal prevented the repatriation of the crown so that he could crown Habsburg Otto with it at an opportune time.
The cardinal, who was arrested on December 26, 1948 - in an extremely gross violation of international law - was also accused of espionage, overthrowing the republic, and dealing in currency. All things considered, the case of the Holy Crown II. It became one of the weapons used by the Republic of Hungary against Mindszenty.
What real facts did the Bolshevik government spin?
Ten days after the proclamation of the republic, the archbishop sent a letter to XII. Pius, in which he requested that the Holy Crown be placed in the Vatican. According to Mindszenty's reasoning, with the birth of the Hungarian Republic, the crown must be with the original sending party, that is, with the Pope - although we know that the Holy Crown is not the same as the crown sent to St. Stephen
In the summer of 1947, the Prince-Primate actually negotiated with Otto Habsburg, as he was preoccupied with the power vacuum created – in theory – by the Paris Peace Treaty. Another issue is that these plans did not have much reality due to the Anglo-Saxon-Soviet agreements concluded at the time of the Holocaust. By the way, the prince-primate himself also woke up to this around this time.
Péter Veres on January 17, 1949 shed light on the true ideological background of the accusation: "What kind of limited fantasy is required for someone today, during the victorious advance of the world movement of socialism, to dream about the restoration of the reigning house with the darkest past among all ruling houses, the House of Habsburg - even if he's just daydreaming - it's almost incomprehensible. Anyone who takes such ideas seriously is not only feudally reactionary, but also a traitor to the nation in the purest sense." Gyula Alapy put it this way: "During the trial, it was revealed that the former royal crown was retained by the American forces as a result of this organization's machinations. By withholding the crown, Mindszenty not only wanted to deprive our state of this relic, but he also wanted to ensure that the crown would be at hand if he wanted to put it on Otto Habsburg's head!"
It was also of symbolic importance that on the very day when Mindszenty was sentenced to life imprisonment on February 8, 1949, XII. It was opened by Pius IV. Károly's beatification procedure.
The period between 1945-1977 is characterized by the legal situation that, according to the Hungarian People's Republic, the coronation jewels are the property of the Hungarian state, in contrast to the consistent view of the United States of America that they received them for safekeeping and therefore treat them as property with a special status. However, the communist power elite could not make the so-called In the Standard case, the case of the illegally arrested and then convicted Robert Vogeler being set free in order to return the relics was also not addressed. The United States of America did not hand them over to the Hungarian dictator and his circle, nor to the Vatican. After the revolution and freedom struggle, new attempts to return the crown jewels could not be successful because members of the Hungarian and Eastern European emigration living in the United States of America would have considered this act as a contribution to the acceptance of the political system led by János Kádár .
He was already in custody - he was held at the infamous Andrássy út 60 in Budapest - when, recalling those days, he wrote down that "from my letters, which - it seems - have been in the hands of the police for a long time, it is clear that the Holy Crown , I wanted to take our thousand-year-old and most feared relic and treasure to Rome in order to save it from an uncertain and adverse situation. I have received reports that the Holy Crown is not in proper custody, and so there is even a fear that it will be subjected to archaeological investigations. These aspects led me to give the Holy Crown, which arrived from Rome a thousand years earlier, to the great friend of the Hungarians, XII. I leave it to the care of Pope Pius."
Time passed...Mindszenty had already been living in the shelter provided by the United States of America in Szabadság Square for almost eight years, when on the one hand, on August 24, 1964, he Lyndon Baines Johnson , and on the other hand, two days later - using the opportunity provided by the embassy, through Washington - with a letter VI. to Pope Pál , whom Montini knew well from the previous years as Deputy State Secretary. Here is the letter to the President, testimony and testimony, a voice of concern based on a lifetime of experience to President Johnson regarding the Holy Crown:
"According to newspaper reports, negotiations will begin between the United States and the Kádár regime. I'm afraid the Holy Crown will be one of the demands. The Holy Crown, as far as I know, is in the hands of the United States Army in Germany. After the Second World War, the new system already reclaimed it once. The Vatican and Cardinal Spellman put forward my request that the Holy Crown not be returned to the Reds. As it happened, President Truman flatly rejected even the idea.
This question was one of the reasons and pretext for my life sentence. If necessary, I would go to prison again for the Holy Crown and its unspeakable spiritual significance. The danger is still great today. I am asking Mr. President with confidence, save the crown.
The Holy Crown was given to the new Hungarian Christianity by Pope Sylvester in 1001 Saint Stephen , the first Hungarian king. For almost a thousand years, every Hungarian king was crowned with this. This is the seal of the ancient nature of our country and Christianity, a unique Christian and constitutional symbol in the world. The embodiment of Hungarian integrity after the two unjust peace treaties, which destroyed the most perfect historical, geological, economic and cultural unity, the absolute majority of Hungarians in this country, to the enormous detriment and unhappiness of the Hungarians and the separated nationalities, who, although they were in the minority, the "mother countries" in their parliaments, however, they claimed that it was better in Hungary (Radić, Trumbić, Hlinka, Juriga, Maniu, Slavici, etc.).
The Holy Crown cannot belong to the atheistic Bolsheviks. It must not happen that the Holy Crown falls into the hands of the Soviets or the Czechs, Romanians, Serbs and is cut up or sold at an auction and the price is distributed. Likewise, it cannot fall into the hands of the Hungarian Bolsheviks. This would be an unprecedented scandal.
The Vatican has also expressed its interest in this matter, but is unaware of the new danger. So I'm asking on your behalf, Mr. President. Mr. Rusk recently stated that US foreign policy has not changed since 1945. We, Hungarians, ask that this be manifested in relation to the Holy Crown, following the example of the army and President Truman."
In his Szabadság tér shelter, the dragged high priest – not surprisingly – considered the removal of the occupiers and their servants from power as a basic condition for the return of the coronation jewels.
Author: Zsolt Zétényi
