(ANSA) Vatican City – A previously unannounced meeting with the Greek Catholic community is the big novelty on the agenda of the visit that Pope Francis of 28 Vatican Press Office Matteo Bruni.
On the 41st apostolic journey of his pontificate, Francis will receive the Greek Catholic community at 11 a.m. on Saturday 29, after welcoming refugees, “many from neighboring Ukraine,” at the Church of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary in Budapest had met.
The three-day visit to Hungary – Pope Francis’ second after a short one on September 12, 2021, before going to Slovakia – will take place entirely in the capital, Budapest, and Bruni declined to explain whether other stages were removed as a result of health conditions of the Pope:
“I’m speaking of the show as it is, not the show as it could have been,” he replied to reporters. As always, Francesco will be accompanied on the trip by a doctor and a nurse. “There are no special measures, that always happens when travelling,” emphasized the Vatican spokesman.
In addition to the above meetings, on the first day the Pope will be received by the President of the Republic Katalin Novak, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the country’s authorities and civil society, and will then meet with the bishops and clergy.
The second day is the moment of visiting the blind and disabled children of the Institute “Blessed László Batthyány-Strattmann”, then the meeting with the young people in the “Sporarena” and a private meeting with the Jesuit confreres in the Apostolic Nunciature.
Finally, on the third day, the Pope will celebrate Mass in Kossuth Lajos Square and meet with the academic and cultural world at the Faculty of Informatics and Bionics of the Péter Pázmány Catholic University.
Six, all in Italian, will be the Pope’s speeches, also recited by Regina Caeli after Sunday Mass.
Bruni recalled that “the Hungarian government is doing a lot to encourage the participation of believers from different parts of the country and to facilitate internal travel”.
The visit, explained the spokesman for the Holy See, “belongs to a special liturgical time, after Easter, the Resurrection, so speaks of the future, as does the motto ‘Christ is our future’: there will be traces of Christian hope in the discourses “.
Then there is “the proximity to the conflict in Ukraine, a country with which Hungary shares a 166-kilometer border, for which we expect words of sadness about the war and hope for peace, including when we meet the refugees from Ukraine and those on the route of the Balkans”.
Added to this, Bruni added, “is the ecological challenge that Hungary has taken very seriously and has been commended for by the Pope”.
“It is also a land of bridges, a crossroads in the middle of the continent – added the Vatican spokesman – and a message could be sent to Europe through Hungary: a Europe of the peoples, with its own history and responsibility and commitment ahead all for peace. And given the ecumenical efforts of the Hungarian church, this could lead to a message for European Christians.”
Speaking of Europe, both in his speeches and in his personal meeting with Orban: “It cannot be ruled out that Francis will address the issues of life, declining birth rates and family.”
It is not yet known whether the Pope will have the opportunity to meet in Budapest with Metropolitan Hilarion, who now works in the Hungarian capital after leaving the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow, and whether the Pope’s meetings will also include Protestants, Lutherans or Calvinists, the latter the confession of Prime Minister Orba
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