The three-day visit that Pope Francis started yesterday in Hungary was already anticipated to be politically very delicate due to the ideological chasm that separates him from the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán. The Pontiff, in the first speech before the authorities in Budapest, did not want to bite his tongue and made a clear call for the reception of immigrants and warned, in front of a president who has had several encounters with Brussels, that Europe must abandon "self-referential populisms" and rediscover the "dream of the founding fathers, statesmen who knew how to look beyond their own time, beyond national borders".
In a country with a political ferocity against migration from its Balkan borders, Francis, a Pope who has made the reception of refugees one of the cornerstones of his pontificate, assured that accepting migrants would be a true sign of christianity That is why he quoted Saint Stephen, king of Hungary and the introducer of Christianity in the country, and said: "I recommend you to welcome strangers with benevolence and honor them in such a way that they prefer to be with you and not elsewhere."
"It is urgent, as in Europe - he continued -, to work in safe and legal ways, with shared mechanisms in the face of an epochal challenge that cannot be stopped by rejecting it, but must be embraced to prepare a future that , if we don't do it together, it won't come. This requires those who follow Jesus and want to imitate the example of the witnesses of the Gospel to be on the front line", he said, in front of a president who has ordered the construction of a fence with Serbia to prevent the entry of migrants.
However, for Orbán, who presents himself as a defender of Christian values in Europe, the papal visit was music to the ears, and he assures that the apostolic trip is "a support" and "a confirmation" of his "struggle for maintain the Christian way, a very difficult struggle in this Europe that cries out for peace". "It is a wonderful moment in the history of this country that his holiness has come to meet us", he celebrated, thereby ratifying the experts who have warned that the presence of the Pope will do his Government a favour. The president also appreciated some words of the Pope that seemed to sound like a blessing in his fight against what he considers the imposition of liberal values. Despite condemning populism, Francis asked to take into account "the life of the people" and criticized the "so-called culture of gender ideology" and the right to abortion, "which is always a tragic defeat". "How beautiful, on the other hand, to build a Europe centered on the person and the people, where there are effective policies for birth and the family, carefully sought in this country", said the Argentine.
The papal visit to Hungary is the second in less than two years after the seven hours he spent there to close a Eucharistic Congress in 2021. After that short stop, before heading to Slovakia, the Hungarians left feeling slighted, which would explain this second trip. The Vatican, however, has assured that the motivation is to express its closeness to Hungarian Catholics, who make up 60% of the population.
