Martyred Hungarian bishop beatified

Hungarian Bishop Zoltán Meszlényi was recognized as a martyr by the Catholic Church and beatified at a ceremony on November 1 with a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Peter Erdo at the Esztergom Basilica, the nation’s prime place of pilgrimage. Said Cardinal Erdo, “ Meszlenyi is the first of the Hungarian victims of Stalinist anti-church persecution to be beatified.”

Bishop Meszlényi took over the reins of the persecuted Catholic church from famed Cardinal József Mindszenty in 1950 when Mindszenty was jailed on trumped-up charges. Mindszenty was to later take refuge in the US embassy where he lived for years. Meszlenyi’s show trial at the hands of the Stalinists was widely followed in the international media in the 1950s.

Meszlényi was arrested in the middle of the night at his home and taken to the infamous forced-labor camp at Kistarcsa, where he was tortured to death. His death was kept a secret for three years, after which he was buried in a closed ceremony 12 years later. He is the 28th Hungarian to be called ”Blessed” by the Catholic Church.

Just as it was once said that the Church is fed on the blood of martyrs, Hungary during this period was a fertile ground for martyrs as the region was occupied both by the German Nazis and the Soviet Communists. Meszlényi’s beatification was preceded by that of Sister Sára Salkaházi in 2006, who was murdered in 1944 by Hungarian Nazis for trying to protect Jews. Bishop Vilmos Apor was beatified in 1997 for giving his life while protecting young girls from rape by the Soviet Red Army in 1945. Suster Salkaházi is recognized by Israel as a Righteous Among the Nations.