A statue was unveiled in Vienna on Saturday of Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, the legendary Hungarian bishop who escaped to Austria in 1971.
The statue has been created for the Hospital Church of the Sisters of Mercy, as the Cardinal passed away in the adjacent hospital on May 17th 1975.
Cardinal Mindszenty was for many years the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary. He has gone down in history as an unbending champion of democracy, his clash with the Communists resulting in a term of life imprisonment in Budapest. He was forcibly liberated during the revolution of 1956.
When the Russians put down the peoples rebellion, the Cardinal was compelled to seek asylum within the American Embassy complex in Budapest. He did not leave this area until 1971. That year he was finally allowed to travel to the West, and the Cardinal ended his days in Vienna, aged 83.
|