Pope Francis to make Apostolic Journey to Hungary

Budapest - Photo by Keszthelyi Timi on Unsplash

Source: Vatican News

Pope Francis will make an Apostolic Journey to Hungary from 28 to 30 April, marking his 41st Journey abroad, where he will follow a busy itinerary in the capital Budapest.

During his three-day visit, the Pope will meet with refugees and poor people, as well as with children of the Blessed László Batthyány-Strattmann Institute.

As is customary, the Holy Father will address authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps; young people; bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians and pastoral workers; and representatives of the academic and cultural world.

More than half of Hungarians are Christian, and at least 37 percent of the population identify as Catholic.

The Holy Father made a brief stop in Budapest to celebrate Mass for the closure of the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress on 12 September 2021, on his way to Slovakia.

Pope Francis also showed his closeness to the Hungarian faithful during his visit to Romania, when celebrated Mass at the popular Hungarian pilgrimage site of Csíksomlyó (Șumuleu Ciuc) in the Romania's Transylvania region. Transylvania had once been part of Hungary, but became Romanian territory in 1920. Ethnic Hungarians in Romania total more than one million people.

Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, said the papal visit will be a great joy for the nation. He said this visit is particularly important as it comes at a time when Hungary, which has a population of less than ten million people, has taken in over a million refugees from Ukraine which has been a "great challenge". Most have not stayed, but about 10 - 15 per cent have remained.

The Cardinal said efforts to support the refugees have been helped by Caritas at national and diocesan level, various parishes charities and the Knights of Malta.

He said the war had brought much sadness, but there have been prayers for peace every day in the different communities.

" We also regularly hold peace processions and have consecrated Ukraine and Russia to Our Lady, as the Holy Father had invited us to do. We did this act in St Stephen's Basilica in front of his relic, because St Stephen a thousand years ago was the first who, according to history, offered an entire country to Our Lady. And so, we felt a spiritual closeness to the two peoples."