BUDAPEST, Hungary — Tens of hundreds of Hungarians flocked to Budapest’s most important sq. Sunday for Pope Francis’ remaining Mass, gathering on the banks of the Danube because the pontiff wrapped up a weekend go to to the center of Europe with pleas for a peaceable finish to Russia’s conflict subsequent door.
The Mass on Kossuth Lajos Sq., with the Hungarian parliament and Budapest’s famed Chain Bridge as a backdrop, supplied the visible spotlight of Francis’ three-day go to that has been dominated by the Vatican’s concern for the plight of neighboring Ukraine.
Citing native organizers, the Vatican mentioned some 50,000 folks had been collaborating on the Mass, greater than 30,000 of them within the sq. on a brilliantly sunny spring morning. Amongst them had been President Katalin Novak and Hungary’s right-wing populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, whose lukewarm assist for Ukraine has rankled fellow European Union members.
After the Mass, Francis had a remaining occasion in Budapest earlier than returning to Rome: a speech on European tradition on the Pazmany Peter Catholic College.
The 86-year-old Francis has tried to forge a diplomatic balancing act in his pleas to finish the conflict, expressing solidarity with Ukraine whereas conserving the door open to dialogue with Moscow. On Saturday, he prayed with Ukrainian refugees after which met with an envoy of Russian Patriarch Kirill, who has firmly supported Moscow’s invasion and justified it as a metaphysical battle in opposition to the liberal West.
Francis kissed the cross of Metropolitan Hilarion in an indication of respect for the Russian Orthodox Church throughout what the Vatican mentioned was a “cordial” 20-minute assembly on the Vatican’s embassy in Budapest. Hilarion, who developed good relations with the Vatican as Kirill’s longtime international minister, mentioned he briefed Francis on his work now because the Moscow Patriarchate’s consultant in Budapest.
Francis’ go to to Hungary, his second in as a few years, introduced him as shut as he’s been to the Ukrainian entrance but additionally to the center of Europe, the place Orban’s avowedly right-wing Christian authorities has solid itself as a bulwark in opposition to a secularizing Western world.
Francis, although, has used the go to to name for the continent to seek out once more its spirit of unity and function, referencing Budapest’s bridges throughout the Danube as symbols of unity and connection.
The location for his remaining Mass couldn’t have been extra acceptable for that message: The sprawling sq. is called for one in all Hungary’s most well-known statesmen who served as its first prime minister after the 1848-1849 revolution in opposition to Habsburg rule. It’s separated from the left financial institution of the Danube river solely by Hungary’s iconic neo-Gothic parliament, the nation’s largest constructing and residential of its Nationwide Meeting. Close by is the Chain Bridge, one in all a number of bridges spanning the river and linking the Pest and Buda sides of the town. ___
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