Word: koczan
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Under heaviest fire have been those priests in whom the shrewd Communists recognized the qualities of leadership which could-make their fight easier. One such priest on their list was Father Boldizsar Koczan, of busy Szombathely (pop. 45,000), only seven miles from the Austrian border...
...Pretty Big Order." In 1930 Father Koczan returned to Szombathely after four years' service with Hungarian immigrants in Ohio. First he organized a new parish. Next he built a new church, one of the city's best. The passing years brought white to his crew-cut hair, and townsfolk of Szombathely placed their faith in him. The day after Cardinal Mindszenty was locked up, the Communist iron claw reached out for Father Koczan...
Summoned to Szombathely Communist headquarters, he was told of Mindszenty's arrest. Now, all priests would have to declare themselves for "democracy," i.e., Communism. Was he prepared to cooperate? "That's a pretty big order," Koczan replied. "I'll have to think it over...
...from his bed. Communist officials showed him a photograph of two priests holding a long metal cylinder. In this, they said, were found the documents which incriminated the cardinal. "The case has blown wide open," said one Red. "Now you'll have to prove yourself." Then they gave Koczan a handwritten petition and told him to sign it. The text denounced Mindszenty for his "treasonable, underhanded" activities...
...next day, members of Father Koczan's congregation pleaded with him to escape. The night before the Friday deadline he slipped across the border into Austria. Unable to stomach a Communist-ruled clergy, he was headed back for Cleveland. Last week in Vienna, 48-year-old Father Koczan recalled the scene in the Red headquarters. He said: "I left without committing myself. If I were younger and healthier, I'd have resisted right there. But I would never have survived...
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