“God bless the Hungarians”, the Pope concluded his prayer in Hungarian at the closing mass of the Eucharistic Congress.Continue reading
According to Italian Catholic Newspaper ACI Stampa, Pope Francis plans to visit Hungary again in September, reports Hungarian Catholic site 777.hu. During the International Eucharistic Congress, the Holy Father stayed in Budapest for only seven hours. However, Francis had already indicated then that he wanted to pay a longer visit to the country.
This article was originally published on our sister-site, Ungarn Heute.
According to the ACI Stampa, the visit could happen as early as September of this year. The newspaper also reported that Pope Francis has already expressed his intention of visiting the Archprimate of Pannonhalma to see the Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma, which is rich in tradition.
Pope Francis visited Hungary in September 2021. Before his brief stay in the capital during the International Eucharistic World Congress, with the Pope himself celebrating the closing Mass, it was not clear for a long time whether he would meet with the heads of state and government (János Áder and Viktor Orbán, respectively), for which he was heavily criticized in the pro-government media before his visit.
However, the meeting finally took place. Before the Holy Mass, Francis met, among others, with Hungarian dignitaries, including President János Áder and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Orbán gave him a copy of a letter from King Béla IV addressed to Pope Ince IV.
Pope Francis and the Hungarian officials discussed the role of the Church in the country, commitment to environmental protection, and “the protection and promotion of the family. Pope Francis presented the president with a mosaic depicting the “Papal Blessing in St. Peter’s Square,” according to the Vatican. As a gift, the Pope presented a triptych to Orbán.
It is important to note that Eucharistic Congresses are usually attended by a papal legate, not by the Pope himself.
ACI Stampa now also reports that Hungary could serve as a neutral meeting place between the Pope and Moscow Patriarch Cyril next September.
According to the article, the head of the Church will still visit Canada, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor, Ukraine, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Spain, Malta, Montenegro, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Florence this year. Many of these trips have been postponed due to the epidemic, and there is speculation in the press that they could be made up in 2022, as Pope Francis himself has hinted at such a trip, although it has not yet been officially confirmed.
Featured image via Gergely Botár/Prime Minister’s Office/MTI
