Posted on 11/20/2022 7:45:12 PM PST by ebb tide
In thinking about what the 90-year-old Chinese Cardinal Joseph Zen is now enduring, I'm reminded of another such hero from back in my day, the Hungarian Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty. There was such an outcry and effort by all Catholics to plead and work for his release from a Communist prison.
As school kids we prayed as a class and contributed our dimes for organizations working for his freedom. What do you hear now from the Vatican regarding Cardinal Zen? The following snip from Wikipedia shares what Pius XII said in behalf of Cardinal Mindszenty:
On 12 February 1949, Pope Pius XII announced the excommunication of all persons involved in the trial and conviction of Mindszenty. On 20 February 1949, the Pope addressed a series of questions to a crowd which had gathered in St. Peter's Square to protest the Cardinal's show trial, asking:
"Do you want a Church that remains silent when She should speak; that diminishes the law of God where she is called to proclaim it loudly, wanting to accommodate it to the will of man? Do you want a Church that departs from the unshakable foundations upon which Christ founded Her, taking the easy way of adapting Herself to the opinion of the day; a Church that is a prey to current trends; a Church that does not condemn the suppression of conscience and does not stand up for the just liberty of the people; a Church that locks Herself up within the four walls of Her temple in unseemly sycophancy, forgetting the divine mission received from Christ: 'Go out the crossroads and preach the people'? Beloved sons and daughters! Spiritual heirs of numberless confessors and martyrs! Is this the Church you venerate and love? Would you recognize in such a Church the features of your Mother? Would you be able to imagine a Successor of St. Peter submitting to such demands?"
According to Sister Pascalina, who witnessed the rally, "In reply to the Holy Father came a single cry like thunder still ringing in our ears.”
Now the church of accompaniment concerns itself with green and gay as Cardinal Zen is in the hands of persecutors. May an angel of the Lord free him as with St. Paul. The church on earth has failed him.
Ping
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