Word: martyrdom
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...quarter of a century, Cardinal Mindszenty symbolized the fundamental incompatibility of Christianity and totalitarianism, whether Nazi or Communist. His death of heart failure last Tuesday not only ended a stirring drama of Christian martyrdom, but in a sense, marked the final stage of an uncompromising view of Communism that has almost disappeared in the West. The source of his greatness, however, lay not in popular acceptance but, as in Thomas More's case, in "his willful indifference to realities which were obvious to quite ordinary contemporaries." The cross he bore--his love of God and freedom--has been lifted...
...museum or at least to the library and institute the Kennedys will probably say the hell with it and retreat to another site. It was Jackie Kennedy Onassis who favored the subway yards site and not Jack, who preferred the B-school; and the legitimacy of Jack's martyrdom got her the land in the first place. She has worn out that legitimacy, as even the Kennedy's old Brattle St. friends are against the complex now, but the Kennedys still have an active interest in keeping everything in Harvard Sq. and were disappointed at the community opposition...
...Union Council or outside of all organized religion. For Vins himself, the future almost certainly holds a sentence of up to ten years, since acquittal in political cases is virtually unknown. Vins' wife and four children fear that given his shaky health, he will follow his father into martyrdom...
When Alexander Solzhenitsyn was abruptly expelled from Russia as a traitorous "alien" last February, the Soviet leaders hoped to rid the U.S.S.R. of a commanding moral presence whose martyrdom had mesmerized the world. If he were yet another emigre, they calculated, the authority of the Nobel-prizewinning writer would gradually cease to be felt in the West and, more important, among Soviet citizens...
...read Vekhi today with a dual awareness, for the failings we are shown seem to be those not only of an era that is past, but in many respects those of our own times. Then: a general sense of martyrdom. Now: the desire is for self-preservation. Vekhi listed characteristics that seemed to be faults at the time -but today they may seem virtues. For example, in the past universal equality was an aim worthy of self-sacrifice. Then: the heroic intellectual dreamt of being the savior of mankind or Russia. He was convinced the only course was social struggle...