Cardinal Erdő: “It is Christ who humanity really needs”

We are preparing for the meeting with Pope Francis as a living community, said Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom and Budapest, in a Thursday evening program on M1 news channel. The cardinal said that the Catholic community is waiting for Pope Francis, first and foremost, with prayer, both within and beyond the borders. The Holy Father will visit Hungary between April 28-30.

The Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference has also issued a prayer card with the logo of the Pope’s visit on one side and a prayer on the other. The prayer asks for the intercession of the Hungarian saints and for God to make the Pope’s visit a source of spiritual renewal and a new time of grace for Hungarians.

Cultural programs are also being prepared, and “I am happy to say that there are programs on public media specifically preparing for the papal visit,” the cardinal said, adding that he receives a lot of feedback that people watch these programs and find them interesting.

Péter Erdő highlighted the documentary series on the life of Blessed János Brenner, a Hungarian Roman Catholic priest and professed member of the Cistercian Order, who was murdered in 1957 during the Communist era. The elderly brother of János Brenner, also a priest, will certainly be present at the events of the Pope’s visit, the cardinal said. He added that János Brenner was also very important because he sacrificed his life for his faith at a young age. As Cardinal Angelo Amato said, martyred saints are not saints of bitterness but of reconciliation.

Speaking about the background to the Pope’s visit, Erdő said that

in 2021, at the closing Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest, Pope Francis felt that he was loved here.

“As we went around the faithful with the Pope mobile, you could see only smiling faces, only enthusiastic eyes,” he recalled, adding that a young couple had given their baby to the Pope to bless him.

Pope Francis himself may have felt that his visit to Budapest was too short and that “we would like to have a little more time together.” “I think that Pope Francis is making a sacrifice with his trip to Hungary, but he definitely wants to come and visit the Hungarian Catholic community and the Hungarian people as a pastor,” the cardinal noted. He also said that on every papal visit, people feel that the Pope represents Christ in a very special way, as it is historically said, he is “the Vicar of Christ.” He added that this was felt by the crowd, that “it is Christ who humanity really needs.”

In connection with the fact that Pope Francis will meet with the clergy and monks on the first day of his visit, April 28, in front of St. Stephen’s Basilica, Cardinal Erdő recalled that when King Saint Stephen (1000-1038) offered his country to the Virgin Mary before his death, Hungary was in a desperate situation. St. Stephen had wanted to build a Christian, Western-style country, but he no longer had a living son to entrust it to. He felt that either Hungary or Christianity would be in a precarious situation with his death. “That is why he asked for the help of the Virgin Mary, that is why he asked for the power of divine providence to accompany us in history.”

“St. Stephen’s belief was that we are not alone. Individual man is not alone, nations are not alone, and humanity is not alone. God has a plan for us, and that plan comes from a loving and wise God in whom we can safely trust,” the cardinal emphasized.

He added that “there is also history behind the encounter with the Hungarian Church,” with the Hungarian clergy going back decades when many priests and monks had been in prison and when many elements of the practice of faith were forbidden.

The last thirty years have also had their difficulties, he said, citing as examples the secularization and the phenomena of consumer society. So it is a twofold process, he said, expressing the hope that Pope Francis’ visit would also encourage the clergy to make a fresh start, to take good initiatives.

Featured photo via Pixabay