Pope Francis arrives in Hungary and meets Viktor Orban

Courtney Mares   By Courtney Mares for CNA

Pope Francis greets Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Budapest, Sept. 12, 2021. / Vatican Media/ EWTN.

Rome Newsroom, Sep 12, 2021 / 02:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis arrived Sunday morning in Hungary, where he met briefly with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The pope’s arrival in Budapest on Sept. 12 marks the 84-year-old pontiff’s first international trip since his colon surgery in July.

Pope Francis will spend roughly seven hours in Hungary, where he will offer the closing Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress, before flying on Sunday afternoon to Slovakia, where he will visit four cities on Sept. 12-15.

The pope’s meeting with Orbán, with whom he sharply disagrees on migration, and Hungarian President János Áder took place at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The private meeting lasted for about an hour.

A photograph of the three men meeting was posted on Orbán’s Instagram account.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Orbán Viktor (@orbanviktor)

A photograph showed the men sitting inside the museum, with the pope on one side, flanked by senior Vatican officials, and Orbán, Áder, and Zsolt Semjén, Hungary’s deputy prime minister, on the other.

Immediately after the meeting, the pope gave a speech to the bishops of Hungary. He then took part in an ecumenical meeting with leaders of Hungary’s Protestant Christian, as well as representatives of the country’s Jewish communities.


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2 Comments

  1. This report does not mention how Orban chose to demonstrate his opposition Francis’ open borders fanaticism. He presented a letter that King Bela IV sent to Pope Innocent IV in 1250, warning of a looming Tartar invasion of Europe and calling for unity among Europeans to resist it. The Calvinist prime minister is not in the least bit intimidated by Francis’s thuggery and provides a model of how to oppose it.

  2. Apparently unbeguiled by Pope Francis’ winning smile, a smile that has left many a dignitary agog PM Orbán stares quizitively. Suspicious. And no wonder as CNA Courtney Mares quickly points out they have diametrically opposite positions on migration. Calvinist Viktor Orbán would have made Catholic King Saint Stephen who heroically routed Turkish invaders proud. Orthodox also claim favor of Stephen’s sainthood; the Church then still united. Elsewhere I’ve noted Francis is in cahoots with EU head Angela Merkel, a strong advocate of the open border policy that’s further weakening Europe’s diminished Catholic roots. All the giants of globalism like Soros, Gates are behind Merkel and delight in Francis’ smiling acquiescence to globalism issues, ecology concerns, the quest for equanimity. Orbán detractors align him with Poland’s Jarosław Kaczyński as Europe’s anti socialist reactionaries. Implying Nazi like fascism in their Fortress Europe mentality. Must we forget that Pope Francis never, not for one instant commended President Trump for his remarkable defence of Catholicism, and the right to life of the unborn. Only sharp criticism, negative innuendo. For President Biden? That wonderful smile. Not a peep from the Pope on Biden’s savage drive to further the slaughter of innocents in the womb.

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