asked the Minister for External Affairs whether his attention has been drawn to the trial and sentences imposed on the Acting Primate of the Catholic Church in Hungary, Most Reverend Dr. Groesz, Archbishop of Kalossa; on Most Reverend Vendel Endredy, Cistercian Abbot; on Very Reverend Istvan Czellar, General of the Paulician Order; on Reverend Dr. Paul Bosnik; on Very Reverend Father Vezer, Prior of a Paulician Monastery, and a number of Catholic priests and laymen and whether he is in a position to make any statement on the matter to the Dáil, or to make any representations with a view to trying to prevent the carrying into execution the death sentence passed on Very Reverend Father Vezer.
Private Notice Question. - Religious Persecution in Hungary.
The Government has noted with dismay that the campaign of religious persecution in Hungary is continuing. As Deputies are aware, Archbishop Groesz and other priests have been sentenced to imprisonment and Fr. Vezer has been sentenced to death. We remember with sorrow that Cardinal Mindszenty and leaders of other Christian churches in Hungary against whom similar unjust measures were taken over two years ago are still imprisoned.
The Irish people of all denominations are convinced, in the words of the resolution passed by Dáil Éireann on the 21st November, 1946, that
"recognition of the sovereignty of God and the moral law is the fundamental basis of any just and stable world order, and that freedom to worship God truly, in the manner that He Himself has ordained, is the inalienable right of man, respect for which is essential to the preservation of peace among the nations".
I have instructed our Ambassador in London to convey to the representative there of the Government of Hungary our abhorrence at this crime against religious freedom and to protest with all the force possible against the carrying into effect of the death sentence and the sentences of imprisonment inflicted at the recent trial.