Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will pay an official visit to the Vatican today, where Pope Francis will receive him for a private hearing, Bertalan Havasi, head of the Prime Minister's Press Office, told MTI yesterday.
This will be the first official visit of the Hungarian Prime Minister to Pope Francis in the Vatican, the press chief said, adding that it will be the Prime Minister's first official visit to the Vatican since the April 3 parliamentary elections. Balázs Orbán, the prime minister's political director, reminded us about the trip: the institution of the papacy and the person of the Holy Father have played a prominent role in the life of Hungary since the founder of the state, Saint Stephen.
This close bond has been the key to the renewal of Europe countless times. Our common causes connect us even now
- wrote the Deputy Minister of the Prime Minister's Office on Facebook. He added: regarding the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis also strives for the same thing as us Hungarians, that is, for the war to end and for peace to be restored. Balázs Orbán reminded us that the head of the Catholic Church also urged peace in his Easter speech: "peace is possible, it is a duty, peace is everyone's primary responsibility".
Viktor Orbán's first official trip after his election as Prime Minister four years ago led to Warsaw,
during his first prime ministership, and in 1998, the Vatican was among the first foreign destinations, as it is now.
Then II. Pope János Pál received the prime minister and his family for a private hearing at the Vatican's Castel Gandolfo summer residence, located about 30 kilometers southwest of Rome.
Although Viktor Orbán is visiting the Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was elected Pope in 2013, today for the first time in an official private audience, this is not the first time they have met in person. The prime minister also met Pope Francis as a private person in 2016, when he traveled to the Italian capital on the occasion of a meeting with Christian leaders in the Middle East. Viktor Orbán also participated in the twelfth annual meeting of Catholic legislators in Rome last year, and shortly afterwards Pope Francis himself visited Budapest to celebrate the closing mass of the International Eucharistic Congress. At the meeting held at the Museum of Fine Arts, the head of the Catholic Church met with the Hungarian Prime Minister, President János Áder and Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén. The Holy Father then said:
he was touched by the ecumenical spirit and environmental awareness of the Hungarians, and considers the Hungarian family protection measures to be exemplary for the West.
Cover photo: MTI/Prime Minister's Press Office/Zoltán Fischer
