Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin says that the Pope’s visit to Hungary will demonstrate his commitment to building up a more fraternal society in a Europe wounded by war and experiencing “the greatest crisis of refugees since the Second World War.”
Final preparations are in full swing in Hungary for the visit of Pope Francis, who will be in Budapest from today, 28 April, until the end of the month. It is an apostolic journey that will see the Pope meet the faithful for the second time in the “pearl of the Danube,” following his visit in 2021 on the occasion of the International Eucharistic Congress. He is the second Pope to make an apostolic journey to this nation, after St John Paul II in 1991 and 1996.
For three days, events will be concentrated in the capital. There are great expectations for the Pope’s visit. Some are hoping to meet the Successor of Peter, who is coming to fulfill his evangelical mandate to confirm the brothers and sisters in the faith.
Some are looking forward to the Pope’s words on the topics of family and reception of others: “We are experiencing in Europe the greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War,” says the Holy See’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. In this interview with Vatican Media, Cardinal Parolin speaks about the “living faith of Hungary,” noting that “having overcome the phase of the threats of communism,” the faithful, and especially the young, face the “seemingly more innocuous” challenges of materialism and consumerism.
Now with this apostolic journey that he is about to make, the Holy Father intends, first of all, to give continuation and completion to his previous visit to Budapest, and so the journey will be dedicated for the most part to meetings with the various groups, with the various elements of the Hungarian people. Public meetings are planned with civil authorities; with the Clergy, Deacons, Consecrated Persons, and Pastoral Workers; with the world of the marginalized – we think above all of the many refugees from neighbouring Ukraine; with young people – we are almost on the eve of World Youth Day which will be held this time on the European continent, in August, in Lisbon; and then with the world of culture, he said.