BUDAPEST (AP) — Tens of thousands of Hungarians packed Budapest’s main square Sunday for Pope Francis’ final Mass in the country, gathering on the banks of the Danube as the pontiff closed a weekend in the heart of Europe with petitions for a peaceful resolution of the Russian war across the border.
The mass in Kossuth Lajos Square, next to the Hungarian parliament and Budapest’s famous Chain Bridge, was the highlight of Francis’ three-day visit, dominated by Vatican concern over the situation in neighboring Ukraine.
Some 50,000 people attended the mass, the Vatican said, citing figures from the local organization, 30,000 of them in the same square on a bright spring morning. Among them were the president, Katalin Novak, and the prime minister, the conservative populist Viktor Orban, whose tepid support for Ukraine has angered other members of the European Union.
After the mass, Francis had one last act scheduled in Budapest before returning to Rome: a speech on European culture at the Pazmany Peter Catholic University.
The 86-year-old pontiff has tried to strike a diplomatic balance between calling for an end to the war, expressing solidarity with Ukraine and keeping the door open for dialogue with Moscow. On Saturday he prayed with Ukrainian refugees and later met with an envoy of Russian Patriarch Cyril, who has staunchly supported the invasion of Moscow and justified it as a metaphysical battle against the progressive West.
Francis kissed the cross of Hilarion, the metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church, in a gesture of respect during a 20-minute meeting at the Vatican embassy in Budapest, which the Holy See described as “cordial”. Hilarion, who has good relations with the Vatican after his long experience as Cyril’s foreign minister, said he briefed Francis on his current position as the Moscow Patriarchate’s representative in Budapest.
Francis’ visit to Hungary, his second in as many years, has brought him as close as he has ever been to the Ukrainian front, but also to the heart of Europe, where Orban’s government, which describes itself as a Christian conservative, it has been presented as a bulwark against a western world in the process of secularization.
However, the pope used the visit to call on the continent to regain its spirit of unity and purpose, pointing to Budapest’s bridges over the Danube as symbols of unity and connection.
The setting for his last mass could not have been more appropriate for that message: the wide square is named after one of Hungary’s most famous statists, who served as prime minister after the 1848-1849 revolution against the Habsburg regime. . It is separated from the left bank of the Danube by Hungary’s neo-Gothic Parliament, the largest building in the country and home to its National Assembly. Nearby is the Chain Bridge, one of those that spans the river and connects the Pest and Buda sides of the city. ___
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