Rumors in Budapest

After the crushing of Hungary's anti-Russian revolt eleven years ago, Josef Cardinal Mindszenty took refuge in the U.S. mission in Budapest, where he has lived ever since. Last week Budapest buzzed with rumors that Mindszenty, now 75, was about to abandon his self-chosen prison. Lending weight to the reports, Vienna's Franziskus Cardinal Koenig flew to Budapest for his fourth visit to Mindszenty this year. Yet at week's end Koenig had again left the country--alone.

What had happened? Knowledgeable students of the Mindszenty affair were torn between two possible theories. One was that the cardinal had agreed to a Hungary-Vatican deal by which he would have been allowed to leave the country in peace, but then backed down at the last minute when the Communists refused to drop a charge of treason against him. Another was that Mindszenty was so angered by Washington's decision to restore full diplomatic relations with Hungary that he planned to walk out of the mission simply to embarrass incoming U.S. Ambassador Martin Hillenbrand--even at the risk of arrest.

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