Over at Mere Comments, Lee Podles posts on an article in Der Spiegel about a Hungarian Cardinal who was an informant for the Communist government for decades:

Not only was Paskai informing on his fellow priests, the majority of the Hungarian delegation to the Second Vatican Council were in fact secret police informers, and in 1977 alone 421 priests informed on their fellow Catholics.

     Paskai lives in comfortable retirement, and justifies what he did: “Ah, this history….I have never talked about it and I don’t imagine I ever will.” He added: “It was all to the good, that we spoke with the powers of the state. One had to do that.”

     One patriotic priest, Frigyes Hagemann, who was betrayed, left the priesthood after serving five years in solitary confinement and in prison. He is now elderly and has obtained his 30-pound secret police file, which contains the denunciations by his friends and colleagues. He has concluded: “Humanly speaking, the official Hungarian Church is monstrous.” As to Paskai: “He will have to answer to his Maker.” Paskai does not seem concerned about that prospect.

Do read the comments as well, for Stuart Koehl’s effort to put this in context.