Pope Francis visited Hungary last week, where he met refugees and called for “creative efforts for peace”.
The three-day visit to Budapest included meetings with the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and Metropolitan Hilarion, the Russian Orthodox bishop who formerly headed the Moscow patriarchate’s international relations department.
In an address to civil authorities on 28 April, Francis said that the post-war settlement of multilateral relations was at an end.
“We seem to be witnessing the sorry sunset of that choral dream of peace, as the soloists of war now take over,” he said.
“More and more, enthusiasm for building a peaceful and stable community of nations seems to be cooling, as zones of influence are marked out, differences accentuated, nationalism is on the rise, and ever harsher judgments and language are used against others.”
He hoped for a Europe “neither falling prey to self-referential forms of populism nor resorting to a fluid, if not vapid, ‘supranationalism’ that loses sight of the life of its peoples” and becomes subject to “ideological colonisation” – remarks echoed on Sunday when he warned against the “false notion of freedom” offered by communism and consumerism.
Francis made guarded reference to Hungary’s reception of refugees, praising its welcome to 1.5 million Ukrainians since last year’s Russian invasion but avoiding mention of Orbán’s efforts to prevent arrivals from Africa and the Middle East.
However, Francis emphasised Hungary’s historic role as a “bridge builder” and its “specific ecumenical character”.
He resumed the theme the next day in the Church of St Elizabeth of Hungary, where he met a group of 600 refugees and homeless people. He said that the Church must speak “the language of charity” like St Elizabeth, a thirteenth-century princess who embraced an ascetic Franciscan spirituality.
Francis also visited and blessed the much small Church of the Protection of the Mother of God, home of Budapest’s Greek Catholic community.
The Pope’s private meeting with Hilarion later that day was not part of his official agenda, according to the Vatican press office.
On Sunday, Francis celebrated Mass before 50,000 people in Kossuth Lajos Square. Preaching on the gospel of the Good Shepherd, he urged Hungarians to “be open doors”.
“Be open and inclusive, then, and in this way help Hungary to grow in fraternity which is the path to peace.”
In his final public engagement he addressed members of the Faculty of Information Technology and Bionics at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest, where he discussed the perils of technology and of consumerism and communism.
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