The plane carrying Pope Francis and his entourage landed at Budapest Ferenc Liszt Airport a few minutes before 10 a.m. The head of the church came to Hungary for a three-day apostolic visit. The photojournalist of the Dunakanyar Region, Krisztián Tóta, reported to our readers about the arrival of the Holy Father in Budapest.
On behalf of the state, the Pope was received by Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, on behalf of the Church Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, András Veres, President of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference and Archbishop-Metropolitan Fülöp Kocsis.
A hundred children were waiting for Pope Francis at the airport. Among them, two children dressed in Hungarian folk costumes handed him bread and salt.
The members of the papal delegation include, among others, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, head of the Vatican’s intergovernmental relations.
After his arrival, the head of the Catholic Church will take part in a face-to-face meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén.
Pope Francis’ apostolic journey on April 28-30, 2023 and all public events related to his visit will be reported on by almost all public media channels. There will be a total of six live broadcasts on the Duna TV channel and Kossuth radio, and two live broadcasts each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Parliamentary representative of the 4th electoral district of Pest County, dr. Bence Rétvári, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of the Interior, was also present at the reception of Pope Francis at Liszt Ferenc Airport, who wrote about his meeting with the Holy Father as follows:
“For days I have been thinking about what to say to the Holy Father when I can greet him at the airport in Hungary. A few years ago, when I met him in Rome, I asked him to pray for Hungary, to pray for Hungarians.
Now he came to us again because he felt something about us at the Eucharistic Congress two years ago and his heart was drawn back. I thought, maybe I should tell him where he arrived in a few seconds. I have given many speeches, and I have thousands of parliamentary speeches behind me, but these few sentences were perhaps the most difficult to formulate. And when you’re standing in front of the Pope, it’s not easy to speak, so it wasn’t for me either, my heart was pounding in my throat.
Finally, I greeted the Pope with “Welcome to Mary’s kingdom, Rengum Marianum!”. Then I received a gift from the Holy Father, a commemorative medal. And this is no different than when our King Saint Stephen offers Hungary to the Virgin Mary: that is why we call our country Regnum Marianum.
So, he didn’t need to introduce himself to where he was coming. We were already thinking before the first word was spoken.”
Text: MTI/Dunakanyar Region
Photo: Krisztián Tóta/Dunakanyar Region
