The New Kulturkampf
Those who felt that the Hungarian Government had reached the depths of crude brutality in its indictment of Cardinal Mindszenty, its publication of " spontaneous" telegrams from factory committees and other workers' organisations, its extraction of the required " confession," and the savage sentence of life imprisonment finally passed, were being too sanguine. They had reckoned without the Bulgarian Government, which is showing in its proceedings against fifteen Protestant pastors that there are further depths to be plumbed. The so-called confessions of the heads of the Bulgarian Congrega- tional,7 Methodist and Baptist Churches have been ptiblished in 1;u11 in
the Bulgarian press before the trial has even begun. From these documents it is possible to gather that in Bulgaria direct contact with foreigners from the West and the disclosure of information on crops and imports are crimes. There can be little hope for any Christian so long as his beliefs can be assailed by means of a list of trumped up civil charges of this kind. But it can at least be recognised and reiter- ated that what is being attacked in Eastern Europe is Christianity itself. The attack has now spread to the Soviet zone of Germany where priests of both the Evangelical and Catholic Churches have been accused of lukewarmness towards " democratic reforms." Quite clearly there are more and wider attacks to come. On Sunday the Pope showed how difficult it has become to draw, in Communist countries, the essential distinction between the things which are Caesar's and the things which are God's. He emphasised that the distinction still remains. He recognised that it will always be the duty of the Church to do the best for Christians everywhere even while their leaders are being struck down. Bat the end of the process which has now begun is very dark, for Communism clearly claims the souls of men as well as their bodies, and has now embarked on a new drive to enforce its claims.
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