Letter to Frederic L. Vorbeck, Executive Chairman, United Catholic Organizations for the Freeing of Cardinal Mindszenty.

[Released February 4, 1954- Dated February 1, 1954]

Dear Mr. Vorbeck:

I have your telegram of January twenty-third on behalf of the United Catholic Organizations for the Freeing of Cardinal Mindszenty. We in the free world have not forgotten that this is the fifth anniversary of Cardinal Mindszenty's trial and imprisonment by the Communist authorities in Hungary.

The unjust nature of the proceedings against Cardinal Mindszenty is, of course, well known to the American people. They regarded the attack upon him as a blow against religious freedom in Hungary and an unprincipled attempt to destroy spiritual and moral influences in that country.

The Communist assault upon religious liberty and leadership in Hungary has failed, however, to turn the Hungarian people from their faith in God. The plight of Cardinal Mindszenty and of other churchmen who have suffered at the hands of the Communists has not been forgotten. Their situation continues deeply to concern the people of Hungary and to evoke the sympathy of the free world. Despite the constraints of person and silence imposed on Cardinal Mindszenty and other church leaders by their persecutors, the spirit of these men has defied confinement by the totalitarian State. It has become, indeed, a symbol of faith and freedom for our times.

Sincerely,

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER