Cardinal Erdő: ‘Pope Francis paid attention to our problems and situation’

From all the speeches given by Pope Francis during his visit to Hungary, “it could be felt that he paid attention to our problems and our situation”, Cardinal Péter Erdő, the Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, said on Monday at a lecture in Budapest, adding that Hungarians “got the encouragement we need” from the pontiff.

“Pope Francis came for a pastoral visit, and he spoke to us keeping in mind the peculiarities of Hungarian history and paying attention to our pastoral needs,” Erdő said.

The cardinal said that Pope Francis likes to visit small nations, and although Hungary is in the middle of Europe, “our history shows that we have always been a borderland between East and West or even North and South”. This involved a lot of suffering, but also many lessons and many opportunities over time, he added.

Erdő said he believes Pope Francis was much less strict than usual during his meeting with priests and bishops in St. Stephen’s Basilica, owing to Hungary’s history.

As we wrote a few weeks ago, Pope Francis talks about a secretive peace mission in Ukraine after his visit to Hungary, details HERE.