orig. Pehm József
born March 29, 1892, Csehimindszent, near Szombathely, Austria-Hungary
died May 6, 1975, Vienna, Austria
Hungarian cardinal who opposed fascism and communism.
Ordained a priest in 1915, he was arrested as an enemy of totalitarian governments in 1919 and again in 1944. He was appointed primate of Hungary in 1945 and made a cardinal in 1946. Refusing to permit Hungary's Roman Catholic schools to be secularized by the communists, he was arrested in 1948 and convicted of treason the next year. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he was freed in the Hungarian Revolution (1956). When the communists regained control, he sought asylum in the U.S. embassy in Budapest and lived there for 15 years, refusing Vatican requests to leave Hungary. He relented in 1971, settled in Vienna, and was retired as primate of Hungary in 1974.