Pope Francis will travel to Hungary in April where he will meet with government officials, refugees, academic scholars and young people in Budapest, the Vatican announced yesterday. Source: CNS.
The Pope will arrive in Budapest on April 28 and will meet with Katalin Novák, president of Hungary, and the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, as well as local bishops, priests and other members of Hungary’s Catholic community.
Ms Novák, who is Hungary’s first female head of state, invited Pope Francis to visit Hungary during her visit to the Vatican in August 2022.
The Pope will only spend one full day in the country on April 29, during which he will meet privately with children from a local school, speak with refugees and people in need, address young people and meet with the local Jesuit community.
Before returning to Rome on April 30, he will celebrate Mass before the Hungarian Parliament building and meet with scholars from Budapest’s Pázmány Péter Catholic University.
Pope Francis previously travelled to Budapest to celebrate the closing Mass of the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress which was held in the city ahead of a four-day visit to Slovakia in 2021.
In a statement yesterday, Cardinal Péter Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest said that the Pope’s visit to Budapest is a “particular joy” for everyone in his archdiocese as well as those who will travel to the city from throughout Hungary and abroad.
“May our meeting with the successor of St Peter be a decisive step on the path we walk together toward Christ,” he wrote.
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Pope Francis will travel to Hungary at the end of April (By Justin McLellan, CNS)
