• Vatican Pope Francis will allow women to vote at next Synod of Bishops

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 "the consequences sooner or later will reverberate on everyone." Francis addressed the thorny issue of migration after meeting with Hungarian President Katalin Novak and Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who despite having welcomed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees, maintains a hard-line policy against migration from other countries that arrive at its borders by the Balkan route.

"I recommend that you welcome strangers with benevolence and honor them so that they prefer to be with you and not somewhere else," he reminded the Hungarian authorities of the words of St. 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 war in that country and no doubt the references to migration will not be the only ones in particularly tense circumstances in Hungary and Europe. Francis' pastoral trip will also be political at a time when Orban is coming under heavy pressure from NATO allies and EU partners because of his apparently pro-Russian stance. Although Hungary has formally condemned the invasion, Orban's conduct has often not seemed sympathetic to Ukraine's plight or even far from neutral.

The Hungarian government has blocked EU sanctions against key Kremlin associates such as Patriarch Kirill, delayed progress on Ukraine's security partnership with NATO and, until this week, tolerated the presence of Russia's International Investment Bank in Budapest, despite NATO partners considering it a "spy bank" whose diplomatic status has supposedly provided it with 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 message of forceful peace in Budapest could favor a different agenda than the pope's since Orban's use of the language of peace evokes the Cold War "peace movement," which was widely used to cover up Soviet-influenced operations. Some Hungarian Catholic voices critical of the government acknowledge that danger, but at the same time believe the pope can ultimately deflect it. Francis has a history of credulity when it comes to the proposals of authoritarian leaders who have learned to imitate their own arguments.

Andras Hodasz is one of those critical voices. He left the Catholic priesthood last year after denouncing the ruling Fidesz party's growing interference in the country's churches. For example, on the eve of the April 2022 elections, which were held alongside a referendum on LGBT issues scheduled for election day, the Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference issued a statement on marriage that, according to Catholic intellectuals, went far beyond the affirmation of traditional teachings on heterosexual marriage, affirming 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 who objected, had to face the backlash of the church hierarchy, which feared that his frankness would jeopardize generous government funding of the Church's social institutions.

According to religious affairs journalist Jonathan Luxmoore, who writes regularly about papal diplomacy for the Church Times, "Vatican diplomats often show little understanding of the real conditions on the ground." The problem is serious today, as evidenced 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 obscure both countries' dire human rights records and given them a patina of respectability.

Hungary maintains strong bilateral ties with both countries and through the Turkic Council, whose European Representative Office is hosted in Budapest at the expense of the public purse. It is therefore very likely that the Hungarian authorities have studied the manual used by their Central Asian allies and are trying to put it into practice.

A campaign to bind the Pope

Pope Francis' trip to Budapest this week is good 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 lure the Vatican into a campaign of "hearts and minds" spearheaded by Eduard von Habsburg, Hungary's ambassador to the Holy See and a descendant of Austria-Hungary's ancient ruling family. The personal charm and moderate language of Habsburg are far from the pugilistic image cultivated by the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Peter Szijjarto.

Habsburg has earned the trust of senior staff in the Vatican's central administration, developing a remarkable 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 number of changes in communication and political cooperation have been necessary to bring about a reset. Fidesz has struggled 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 in which he mocked Francis as "a senile old madman or a scoundrel" who worked with Hungarian-born 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 common calls for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Learn more