Pope in final Mass in Budapest urges Hungary to open doors
, more than 30,000 of them in the square, on a brilliantly sunny spring morning. Among them were President Katalin Novak and Hungary’s right-wing populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, whose lukewarm support for Ukraine has rankled fellow European Union members.
“How sad and painful it is to see closed doors,” Francis said in his Sunday homily on the Danube. “The closed doors of our selfishness with regard to others; the closed doors of our individualism amid a society of growing isolation; the closed doors of our indifference towards the underprivileged and those who suffer; the doors we close towards those who are foreign or unlike us, towards migrants or the poor.
Francis’ visit to Hungary, his second in as many years, brought him as close as he’s been to the Ukrainian front but also to the heart of Europe, where Orban’s avowedly right-wing Christian government has cast itself asFrancis, though, has used the visit to call for the continent to find again its spirit of unity and purpose, referencing Budapest’s bridges across the Danube as symbols of unity and connection.
Sister Marta, a nun of Hungarian origin from Brazil who attended the Mass, said she hoped Francis’ message of welcome would be heard in Hungary. “We have gotten accustomed to openness towards others, and we hope that Hungary as well will open in this direction,” she said after the liturgy.“I don’t know if we need to change. There is nothing at all in this country that is out of the ordinary, any kind of behavior that we would have to change,” Sara said.
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