Vatican City, Oct 27, 2025 / 17:49 pm (CNA).
In separate audiences on Monday, Pope Leo XIV received two political leaders with very different views on the migration issue. In the morning, he met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and in the afternoon he met with Magnus Brunner, European Union Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration.
Orbán maintains a restrictionist stance on migration and has repeatedly criticized the migrant redistribution policies promoted by the European Union. For his part, Brunner defends a common migration policy and supports the implementation of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, an agreement the Hungarian leader firmly rejects.
Orbán arrived promptly at 9 a.m. at the Courtyard of San Damaso in the Apostolic Palace for his first official meeting with the Holy Father. He later met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state of the Holy See, and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for relations with states and international organizations.
The Vatican did not provide details on the content of the private audience with the pope nor did it specify whether the migration issue was among the topics discussed. For his part, the Hungarian prime minister stated on his X account that he requested the pope’s support in his country’s efforts for peace.
During the meeting at the Secretariat of State, the strong bilateral relations and appreciation for the Catholic Church’s commitment to promoting social development and the well-being of the Hungarian community were highlighted.
According to the Vatican, special attention was paid to the role of the family and the formation and future of young people as well as the importance of protecting the most vulnerable Christian communities.
The discussions also addressed European issues, especially the conflict in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East.
Last Thursday, during his meeting with delegates from popular movements, Pope Leo XIV defended each state’s right and duty to protect its borders, which he said must be balanced with “the moral obligation to provide refuge” and warned against “inhumane” measures that treat migrants as if they were “garbage.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Who is recommending that anyone be treated like garbage?
When I was a stranger and homeless – you welcomed me – Says the Lord.
Without knowledge of Pope Leo and Viktor Orbán’s discussion, we may reasonably assume the two, whose migrant philosophies are at virtual polarities, proposed the efficacy of their opposing views.
If Pope Leo’s “the migrant seeking entry is Christ knocking at your door” coupled with his allusion to the US illegal migrant deportation policy as “treating migrants like garbage”, adding that “all nations are morally obliged to provide refuge” – while similarly defending a nation’s right to defend its borders – is he, a trained Canon lawyer, oblivious to this classic example of his clearly stated oxymoron?
What vicar of Christ ordained to defend the faith deifies the hordes of illegal migrants seeking entry into nations with the admonition, you have a right to borders, although you don’t have the moral right to defend them? That the person seeking to enter illegally has a divinely sanctioned mission [to destroy Christianity]? What it actually amounts to is a veiled ideology for the destruction of nations and with that its institutions. That the world must become one great mass of disordered humanity. Perhaps an impetuous envisioning of Francis’ Tutti Fratelli.