“Let’s open the doors”: Pope Francis launched a vibrant appeal to welcome migrants, Sunday in Budapest during an open-air mass in front of tens of thousands of people, on the last day of his visit to Hungary. A message hammered home throughout his stay, indirectly criticizing the policy of exclusion of Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
In front of the crowd gathered under a bright sun behind the Parliament, in the heart of the Hungarian capital, the Argentinian Jesuit, aged 86, spoke out against “the doors closed to those who are foreign, different, migrants, poor”. “It is sad and painful to see closed doors: the closed doors of our selfishness towards those who walk alongside us every day (…) the closed doors of our indifference to those who are in suffering and poverty”, a- he lamented.
Call for peace in Ukraine
“Please open the doors! “, launched the pope, fervent defender of the rights of refugees, in front of political and religious leaders including Viktor Orban. François’ 41st international trip is marked by the theme of migration, in this Central European country which built fences on its borders during the migrant crisis in 2015 and detained refugees in “transit zones”, invoking the defense of “Christian civilisation”.
Since his arrival on Friday, the pope has warned against the tendency “to withdraw, sometimes even in the name of faith”. The sovereign pontiff also reiterated his calls for peace in neighboring Ukraine, denouncing the rise of nationalism and urging to “rediscover the European soul” in the face of “bellicose infantilism”. At the end of the mass, he again prayed for “the bruised Ukrainian people” and “the Russian people”, calling for “a world of brothers, not of walls”.
During an appointment not announced in his program, François spoke for about twenty minutes on Saturday evening with the mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, a fierce opponent of the Prime Minister. He also met Metropolitan Hilarion, former head of external relations of the Russian Orthodox Church who was also present at mass on Sunday. Reluctant to invade Ukraine, the latter was ousted by Patriarch Kirill, a close supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the conflict froze relations between the Church of Moscow and the Holy See.