According to the cardinal, in view of Hungarian history, Pope Francis was much less strict than usual during his meeting with the priests and bishops in the St. Stephen’s Basilica. The pope felt the situation of the Hungarian church, which suffered so much during communism, he was “before” when priests and monks were imprisoned, and although he gave advice to the Hungarian community, he was not as harsh as he used to be with the clergy.
Péter Erdő recalled that Pope Francis talked about supporting the fallen and accepting refugees in the field of Roses, adding that the world public has a false image of Hungarians that they do not value otherness. Compared to this, in the Kyiv annals it is written about the occupying Hungarians that they marched with their animals for weeks: the white Hungarians went for two weeks, then the blacks for two weeks. In other words, even from Kiev it was seen that they were not the same even in their color. The conquerors also found other peoples in the Carpathian basin, and after the Turkish rule, the country had to be resettled. In other words, not only do we not appreciate otherness, “we are all different”, since half of the people living in Hungary today are descendants of those who settled after the Turkish era, and “it is a cultural miracle that we all became Hungarians”.
Péter Erdő compared the last apostolic visit, 33 years ago, and the current one: the year 1991 was in many ways a euphoric year, full of expectations, the restrictions of communism had already ended, and although the signs of economic troubles were already showing, society had not yet realized those. By comparison
now, after a lot of things, we waited for the Pope in frustration, we needed encouragement and hope to see the value in our own best initiatives and carry them forward. And we received this encouragement
– assessed the cardinal.
Péter Erdő called it important that Pope Francis referred to St. Stephen several times in his speeches in Hungary, and at the closing Mass in Kossuth Square, he again offered Hungary to the Virgin Mary, as well as Ukraine and Russia, repeating his offer last year. With this, the Holy Father declared that we are in great need of the intercessory help of the Virgin Mary, he added.
