The cardinal was a communist informer

From Lee Podles at Mere Comments comes very sad news that a Hungarian Roman Catholic cardinal, the former primate of the nation, was an informer for the communist government, and is apparently not so repentant. Excerpt:

Not only was Paskai informing on his fellow priests, the majority of the
Hungarian delegation to the Second Vatican Council were in fact secret police
informers, and in 1977 alone 421 priests informed on their fellow
Catholics.

Paskai lives in comfortable retirement, and justifies what he did: “Ah, this history....I have never talked about it and I don’t imagine I ever will.” He added: “It was all to the good, that we spoke with the powers of the state. One had to do that.”

...American bishops betrayed sexually-abused children so that the ecclesiastical machinery would continue to function smoothly and without disruption; Hungarian bishops and priests betrayed fellow priests to a Communist dictatorship so that the Communists would allow ecclesiastical machinery to function smoothly. Somehow I do not think that Jesus is pleased.

Lee is an orthodox Catholic who has written bravely and uncompromisingly about the sex abuse scandal. But of course Roman Catholics aren't the only Christians who suffered through members of their clergy and episcopate betraying them to the Communists. The various Orthodox churches behind the Iron Curtain had bishops who were secret police agents, or who in other ways collaborated with Communist persecution of Orthodox, Catholics and other Christians. Recently an Orthodox friend told me a story about an Orthodox priest who was sent to prison and tortured by the communists. He found out that his bishop had turned him in to the secret police. When the priest was finally released, he sought out the bishop, and found that his betrayer was elderly and in poor health. The former prisoner committed himself to caring for his betrayer for the rest of the elderly bishop's life, as an act of love.

Can you imagine?

We have no idea how fortunate we are in this country. It's tempting to sit in harsh judgment of these Catholic and Orthodox collaborators, and I'm in no way saying that they shouldn't answer for their crimes. But how well would we do if the US were taken over by a fanatical anti-religious dictatorship, and began in earnest to persecute Christians. Here is a YouTube video of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, a Protestant who was imprisoned for 14 years by the Romanian communists, in which he describes some of the brainwashing techniques used on Christians. In 1966, Pastor Wurmbrand, who had been freed from captivity, testified before the US Congress. Excerpt:

But I will tell you that in a prison they crucified a cat before ourselves. They beat nails in the feet of the cat and the cat was hanging with the head down, and can you imagine how this cat screamed and the prisoners, mad, bead on the door, "Free the cat, free the cat, free the cat," and the Communists very polite, "Oh, surely we will free the cat, but give the statements which we ask from you and then the cat will be freed," and I have known men who have given statements against their wives, against their children, against their parents to free the cat. They did it out of madness, and then the parents and the wives have been tortured like the cat. Such things have happened with us.

And later:

The Christian prisoners were tortured in a form which should mock their religion. I tell you again in the prison of Pitesti one scene I will describe you about torturing and mocking Christians, and believe me I would renounce to eternal life to paradise after which I long, if I tell you one word of exaggeration. God is here and knows that I do not say everything. It cannot be said. There are ladies here. There are other people hearing it.

One Sunday morning in the prison of Pitesti a young Christian was already the fourth day, day and night, tied to the cross. Twice a day the cross was put on the floor and 100 other cell inmates by beating, by tortures, were obliged to fulfill their necessities upon his face and upon his body. Then the cross was erected again and the Communists swearing and mocking "Look your Christ, look your Christ, how beautiful he is, adore him, kneel before him, how fine he smells, your Christ." And then the Sunday morning came and a Catholic priest, an acquaintance of mine, has been put to the belt, in the dirt of a cell with 100 prisoners, a plate with excrements, and one with urine was given to him and he was obliged to say the holy mass upon these elements, and he did it. And I asked him afterward, "Father, but how could you make this?" He was half mad. He answered to me: "Brother, I have suffered more than Christ. Don't reproach to me what I have done." And the other prisoners beaten to take holy communion in this form, and the Communists around, "Look, your sacraments, look, your church, what a holy church you have, what fine is your church, what holy ordinance God has given you."

And:

Then came the brain washings. "Your wives are laying in bed with men," obscene words, "Your children hate you. You have nobody to love in the world. You are the only fools. Give up faith. Nobody is more Christians. Christianity is dead."

How well do you think you would hold out under that kind of torture? Would you collaborate? I don't think any of us can confidently say the answer. None of which is, of course, to excuse the collaborating cardinal, who for his own salvation, if nothing else, should repent and beg forgiveness. Still, thank God we have not been tested in the way that Christians under communism were (and no doubt still are in China).

But as for the bishops in this country who had no communist torturer to fear, what is their excuse for betraying children and families?