The latest volume of the National Remembrance Committee was presented at the 93rd Festive Book Week, which is available in bookstores under the title Crossing the Cross - The Trial of József Mindszenty and the Dragging of the Chief Shepherds of the Soviet Bloc.
The book contains edited presentations from a previous international conference. The volume was first published in English thanks to Libreria Editrice Vaticana, which also escaped Pope Francis, who praised József Mindszenty in his letter of thanks.
One of the editors of the volume, András Fejérdy, said that they wanted to present not only József Mindszenty, but the entire era through his example. Because after the Second World War, when Central Europe came under the sphere of interest of the Soviet Union, similar processes started in its states - pointed out one of the editors of the volume.
In the volume, they wanted to present the challenging life of the chief shepherds.
Réka Földváryné Kiss, president of the National Remembrance Committee, said at the book launch that the recently published Hungarian-language volume not only presents emblematic figures of the Catholic Church, but also several other denominations. He reminded that the Hungarian communist government used all means to excommunicate, for example, the evangelical bishops Lajos Ordass or the reformed bishops László Ravasz. He said that the Protestant denominations first started the dialogue with the existing communist power, trusting that they would not have to give up on preaching the gospel.
Wirthné Diera Bernadett, the other editor of the volume, emphasized that the Mindszenty trial itself had a deterrent effect both at home and abroad, because the authorities showed that they could do anything. It can discredit and destroy anyone. The government wanted to excommunicate all church leaders in one way or another. This happened to church leaders defending the Christian faith everywhere, from Yugoslavia to Czechoslovakia.
Gábor Tóth's article was published on Vasárnap.hu
