LAITY PROTEST

Bishops, upholding Archbishop Grosz, demanded their own arrest
WHILST the " trial " of Archbishop Grosz was in progress in Budapest, protest demonstrations were taking place in the capital and in towns and factories throughout Hungary, according to reports reaching Hungarian circles in London. Many arrests are said to have been made.
The same sources state that all the members of the Hun• garian Board of Bishops not in jail went to Istva Kossa, tramman who heads the Office for Church Affairs, and demanded that he should arrest them, too, and put them on trial.
"If Archbishop Grosz is guilty," they are reported to have told him, " then we are guilty too." He refused their request.
Similar reports have been broadcast by Vatican Radio, who quoted the A.R.I. agency of Rome.
It will be recalled that at the time of the trial of Cardinal Mind szenty, Catholics throughout Hungary packed the churches from morning till night to such an extent that this in itself became a demonstration of both protest and piety.
BIG RISK
If these latest reports are correct it would seem that this time they went a good deal further in the risks they took. With the trial coming at the same time as a merciless expulsion of large numbers of middleclass and aristocratic families, it seems that the demonstrations took on a definitely political character.
The Holy Father has excommunicated all those Hungarians connected with the arrest, trial and sentencing of Mgr. Grosz. The last excommunication decree issued by the Sacred Congregation of the Consistory was in connection with the banishment of Archbishop Beran.
Sentences announced in Budapest when the trial ended last week included 15 years' imprisonment for Archbishop Grosz. a death sentence for Fr. Ferenc Veczer. Paulist monk, who allegedly " killed Red Army soldiers with his own hands." and jail sentences ranging from eight to 14 years for five other accused.
The case of the two remaining defendants are coming up for separate treatment.
LIFE SENTENCE
For 64-year-old Archbishop Grosz, the 15 year sentence is presumed to amount to one for life.
Like Cardinal Mindszenty he oomes of peasant family and was noted for his opposition to the Nazis.
His judge was a Nazi-turned Communist, one of the many who have " jumped on the bandwagon' and whom the Communists are using until such time as they have their own people trained for the work.
Archbishon Grosz's particular interest has been the promotion of the development of ecclesiastical music through the establishment of the Sehola Cantorant Sabariesis after the model of the Sistine Choir.