Status: 12.09.2021 5:47 p.m.
The Vatican describes the meeting between Pope Francis and the Hungarian Prime Minister Orban as “warmly”. Orban supporters had raised a lot of mood against the pontiff in advance.
Hungary is not one of the core countries of the Catholic Church, around half of the population is baptized Catholic. But the Pope’s appearance is bombastic, as we know it from many other places. Francis drives his popemobile through downtown Budapest, past tens of thousands of waving people. A huge stage has been set up on Heldenplatz with thousands of chairs in front of it. The Andrassy ut avenue leading off from Heroes’ Square is also packed with people. According to the organizers, more than 70,000 had registered for the event. The government has completely overridden the corona rules.
Thousands take part in a mass on Heroes’ Square in Budapest, which Pope Francis celebrates at the end of the International Eucharistic Congress. He is on his first trip abroad after a serious bowel operation in July.
Image: dpa
An unwilling meeting?
In his sermon, Pope Francis placed Jesus and his path at the center. “Today we would rather have a mighty Messiah than a crucified servant. We can do a lot of ceremony, but the Eucharist shows us God as broken bread, as love crucified and offered.”
The Pope calls for humility, charity and hospitality. Qualities that many do not attribute to the authoritarian Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The Pope met with him for a half-hour conversation before mass – reluctantly, as some media reported in advance. The Vatican then reported that, among other things, the role of the Church in Hungary and the protection of the environment were at stake.
Criticism of the “strange Pope”
Shortly afterwards, Prime Minister Orban published a statement on Facebook that was bursting with self-confidence. He wrote: “I asked Pope Francis not to let Christian Hungary perish.” Hungarian government media had repeatedly criticized the Pope heavily, for example the editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Demokrata, Andras Bencsik, when it was said in the meantime that the Pope did not want to meet Orban.
At the moment the Pope’s behavior is anti-Christian. I pray that the actual Pope Benedict, who fortunately is still alive, will enlighten this strange other Pope and make it clear to him what responsibilities and duties he has as the leader of the Christian world.
Pope Francis was previously insulted as demented and rogue by the publicist and member of the ruling Fidesz party, Zsolt Bayer. “His Holiness the Pope tweets like a good, liberal, gender-believing beast,” Bayer also said.
Pope seeks reconciliation
When he arrived at the Budapest airport, the Pope only briefly commented on these disputes and said that one should not see each other as enemies, but as brothers. Many visitors to the papal mass on Budapest’s Heroes’ Square have an ambivalent relationship to the conflicts between the Hungarian government and Francis.
“If I am honest, the Pope divides. But I would rather not say anything about it, because he is the head of the church and I absolutely accept that,” says an older woman. One man adds: “The Pope is God’s representative on earth, his words have to be followed. The critical undertones – you can do that, but I don’t agree.” Another woman says that John Paul II was the greatest Pope for her.
On Sunday afternoon the Pope flew on to Bratislava for a four-day visit to Slovakia.
The Pope in Budapest
Oliver Soos, ARD Budapest, September 12th, 2021 4:54 p.m.