CATHOLICS DEMONSTEATE

Chronicle (Levin), 21 February 1949, Page 5

CATHOLICS DEMONSTEATE

(N.Z.P.A.-

Reuter .

Big Crowds Protest Against Cardinal's Sentence

Cac3irujht)

Received Mon-day, 9.50 a.m. VATICAN CITY, Feb. 20. Thousands of Catholics flocked to St. Peter's Square, in Vatican City, for the mass demonstration called by the Pope against the sentence passed on Cardinal Mindszenty. The streets leading to St. Peter's were jammed with a solid mass of people. Catholic action groups of the Rome Diocese formed parades in the centre of Rome and marched singing along the mile and a-half route to St. Peter's. Young men in the groups carried flags and cardboard posters. Typical slogans were "The Chains of Cardinal Mindszenty are: Jewels in the Crown of St. Peter" and '"The Chains of Cardinal Mindszenty shine like the Crown of Christ." The Pope, speaking from a specially erected altar, told the demonstrators that the "sentence passed on the Danube on an eminent Cardinal of the Christian world has evoked on the Tiber River a cry of indignation worthy of the centre of Christianity. "The sentence of the Cardinal is not an isolated case, but is an incident in a chain of acts directed against the doctrine of the Christian Church. Persecutors, as never before, are using the progress of -science to exterminate not only their chosen victims, but also those who are defending their homeland and human society." The Pope's speech was broadcast throughout the world by the Vatican radio. It was preceded by Pontifical Mass in St. Peter's celebrated by the Pope himself with another High Mass sung at a temporary altar on the Cathedral steps. Many of the crowdi of a quarter of a million, which overflowed the square, had waited for hours to hear the Pope.