Pope Francis asked today in the first act of his trip to Hungary, where he will remain until Sunday, that Europe deal with the migration crisis "without excuses or delays" because "sooner or later the consequences will affect everyone." Francis addressed the thorny issue of migration after meeting with the Hungarian President, Katalin Novak, and the Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, who despite having welcomed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees, maintains a hard-fisted policy against migration from other countries. countries that reach their borders via the Balkan route.
"I recommend that you welcome foreigners and honor them so that they prefer to be with you and not elsewhere," he reminded the Hungarian authorities of the words of Saint Stephen, King of Hungary and who introduced Christianity to the country.
It is the first visit of the Pontiff to a country bordering Ukraine since the outbreak of the war in that country and without a doubt the references to migration will not be the only ones in particularly tense circumstances in Hungary and in Europe. Francis' pastoral trip will also be political at a time when Orban is coming under heavy pressure from NATO allies and EU partners over his ostensibly pro-Russian stance. Although Hungary has formally condemned the invasion, Orban's conduct has often appeared unsympathetic to Ukraine's plight or even far from neutral.
The Hungarian government has blocked EU sanctions against key Kremlin associates like Patriarch Kirill, delayed progress on Ukraine's security partnership with NATO and, until this week, tolerated the presence of the International Investment Bank of Russia in Budapest, despite being considered a "spy bank" by NATO partners whose diplomatic status has reportedly provided it ideal cover for espionage activities.
Pope Francis is expected to reiterate his call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, which in practice would currently favor Russia. Any strong peace message in Budapest could further an agenda other than the Pope's given that Orban's use of peace language evokes the Cold War "peace movement", which was widely used to cover up military operations. soviet influence. Some Hungarian Catholic voices critical of the government acknowledge that danger, but at the same time believe that the Pope can ultimately deflect it. Francis has a history of gullibility when it comes to the proposals of authoritarian leaders who have learned to mimic their own arguments.
Andras Hodasz is one of those critical voices. He left the Catholic priesthood last year after denouncing growing interference by the ruling party, Fidesz, in the country's churches. For example, on the eve of the April 2022 elections, which were held in conjunction with a referendum on LGBT issues scheduled for election day, the Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference issued a statement on marriage which, according to Catholic intellectuals, was going far beyond affirming traditional teachings on heterosexual marriage, stating that it is "the foundation of human dignity." It is believed that the idea for the declaration did not come from the Bishops' Conference, but from the prime minister's office.
Hodasz, the only cleric to object, had to face backlash from the church hierarchy, which feared that his outspokenness would endanger generous government funding of the Church's social institutions.
According to religious journalist Jonathan Luxmoore, who writes regularly about papal diplomacy for the Church Times, "Vatican diplomats often show little understanding of actual conditions on the ground." The problem is serious today, as demonstrated by the Vatican's dealings with China, Belarus, and other dictatorial and totalitarian regimes."
The same can be said of the visits and compliments that the Pope has exchanged with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, both close allies of Orban. Critics say these visits have helped hide the dismal human rights records of both countries and have given them a patina of respectability.
Hungary maintains strong bilateral ties with both countries and through the Turkish Council, whose European Representation Office is housed in Budapest at public expense. Therefore, it is very likely that the Hungarian authorities have studied the manual used by their Central Asian allies and try to put it into practice.
Pope Francis' trip to Budapest this week is welcome news for many Hungarian Catholics, who were disappointed by the meager five hours the pontiff spent in Budapest in 2021 en route to a three-day visit to Slovakia.
Since then, Budapest has made a concerted effort to draw in the Vatican in a "hearts and minds" campaign led by Eduard von Habsburg, Hungary's ambassador to the Holy See and a scion of Austria-Hungary's former ruling family. Habsburg's personal charm and moderate language are a far cry from the boxing image cultivated by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
Habsburg has earned the trust of high-ranking staff in the Vatican's central administration, developing a notable relationship with Archbishop Richard Gallagher, the Vatican's secretary for relations with states (basically, the foreign minister). However, many subordinate staff members of the Vatican's diplomatic corps remain reluctant to engage with the Hungarian government, a Vatican correspondent told BIRN this week.
A series of changes in communication and political cooperation have been necessary to achieve a recovery. Fidesz has strived to find common ground with the Vatican, for example through its natalist "Family Policy", opposition to "LGBT ideology" and humanitarian aid to persecuted Christian communities in the Middle East and Africa.
Since 2021, the venomous and sometimes relentless attacks on Francis published in the Fidesz-controlled Hungarian media have disappeared. The completeness of the disappearance reveals the centrally directed nature of its earlier occurrence.
Where once Hungarians could read columns by Fidesz co-founder Zsolt Bayer mocking Francis as "a senile old madman or a scoundrel" working with Hungarian-American financier George Soros to undermine Christian nations, now Orban reminds his listeners that in Europe only he and Pope Francis are "on the side of peace", as evidenced by their joint calls for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
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