The Vatican’s Reaction

From October 24, 1956, the Vatican’s daily newspaper reported continuously on the events in Budapest. Pope Pius XII spoke several times on Vatican Radio, encouraging the Hungarians and urging international assistance.

L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s semi-official newspaper, published the Holy Father’s appeal in a special edition, which was immediately picked up by radio stations across the globe. It is entirely unprecedented in the history of the Catholic Church for a Pope to address a single issue three times within the span of nine days.

On October 28, the Pope’s encyclical Luctuosissimi eventus was published; in it, the Holy Father assured the Hungarian people of his profound sympathy and called upon all bishops, Catholic priests, and the faithful worldwide to pray for the suffering Hungarian people. At the conclusion of the encyclical, he bestowed a special blessing upon the entire Hungarian nation.

This was followed on November 2 by a second encyclical addressing the events of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution (Laetamur admodum): “It was with no less joy that We learned that Our beloved sons—Cardinal S. Wyszyński, Archbishop of Warsaw, and Cardinal József Mindszenty, Archbishop of Esztergom, who had previously been removed from their sees—have been restored to their dignity and responsible offices, where they were welcomed by rejoicing crowds.”

In the encyclical beginning with the words Datis nuperrime, issued on November 5—the day after the Soviet entry — the Pope condemned the Soviet armed intervention, declaring in unusually harsh terms: “The blood of the Hungarian people cries out to heaven… a nation drenched in blood has been plunged into a new slavery with the aid of foreign arms.”

Catholic organizations mobilized by the Vatican and the Pope collected food, medicine, and clothing for Hungarian refugees.