“SAD AND PAINFUL… TO SEE CLOSED DOORS” FOR MIGRANTS POPE SAYS TO HUNGARIANS

Sun 30 Apr 2023:

On Sunday, Pope Francis urged Hungarians to be ‘open’ to migrants. The declaration came as the head of the Roman Catholic Church was winding up a three-day visit to the central European country.

“Let us encourage one another to be increasingly open doors,” the 86-year-old Argentine pontiff said, adding it was “sad and painful… to see closed doors”.

“The closed doors of our selfishness with regard to others…the doors we close towards those who are foreign or unlike us, towards migrants or the poor.”

According to local authorities, 50,000 people gathered on Sunday to hear the pope say mass under heavy security at Kossuth Lajos Square, behind the parliament on the Danube’s banks.

Pope’s statement assumes significance, especially in the backdrop of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban adopting a tough stance on immigration. In a 2018 interview, Orban referred to Muslim refugees as Muslim invaders who started parallel societies.

“We don’t see these people as Muslim refugees. We see them as Muslim invaders. We believe that a large number of Muslims inevitably leads to parallel societies, because Christian and Muslim society will never unite.” Multiculturalism, he said, “is only an illusion.”

After the European Union forced Budapest to shut down its so-called border transit zones that Brussels termed ‘detention camps’, the country has been only accepting asylum seekers’ applications at Hungarian embassies abroad which has slowed down the number of asylum seekers.

Throughout his visit, Francis has emphasised on welcoming those who are fleeing their home countries to find some kind of normalcy. On the second day of the visit, Pope urged the people to, “help to uproot the evils of indifference and selfishness from society, from our cities and the places where we live, and to rekindle hope for a new, more just and fraternal world.”

Pope’s second visit to Hungary

The pope last visited Hungary in 2021 where 39 per cent of the 9.7-million-strong population is catholic. The visit comes nearly a month after he was hospitalised for three months for a serious bronchitis infection.

Pope on multiple occasions has hinted that he may step down, akin to his predecessor Benedict XVI due to poor health.

“I don’t think I can continue doing trips with the same rhythm as before. I think that at my age and with this limitation I have to preserve (my strength) a bit in order to be able to serve the Church, or decide to step aside,” he was quoted as saying last year.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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