“Let’s open the doors” : Pope Francis makes an appeal to welcome migrants during an open-air Mass that gathered tens of thousands of people in Budapest, on the last day of his visit to Hungary, Sunday 30 April.
A message came home throughout his stay, in an indirect criticism of the exclusion policy of nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
sequel after announcement
Before a crowd gathered in the bright sun behind Parliament, in the heart of the Hungarian capital, the 86-year-old Argentine Jesuit rose up against “The doors are closed to the different foreigners, immigrants and the poor”.
“It is sad and painful to see the closed doors: the closed doors of our selfishness towards those who walk beside us every day (…) the closed doors of our indifference to those who suffer and suffer poverty”lamented. “Please open the doors! »The pope, a staunch defender of refugee rights, fired in front of political and religious leaders including Viktor Orban.
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François’ International Flight 41 featured the theme of migration, in this central European country that erected fences on its borders during the 2015 migrant crisis and detained refugees in “transit zones”pleading defense “Christian civilization”.
Since his arrival on Friday, the pope has been warning against this trend “In withdrawal, sometimes in the name of faith”. The sovereign Pope also repeated his calls for peace in neighboring Ukraine, denouncing and urging the rise of nationalism “Reclaiming the European spirit” Before “warrior childhood”. At the end of the liturgy, he again prayed for “The bruised Ukrainian people” And “Russian people”calling “A world of brothers, not walls”.
sequel after announcement
During an unannounced date on his programme, François spoke for twenty minutes on Saturday night with the mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karacsony, a fierce opponent of the prime minister.
He also met Metropolitan Hilarion, the former head of external relations of the Russian Orthodox Church who was also present at the Sunday service. Reluctant to invade Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill, a close supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, overthrew Ukraine, as the conflict froze relations between the Moscow Church and the Holy See.
