Pope Francis urged Hungarians to open their doors to migrants and poor people as he wrapped up a weekend visit to Hungary dominated by his concern for the plight of migrants and the war in Ukraine.
“How sad and painful it is to see closed doors,” Francis said on April 30 as he celebrated Mass on Budapest’s Kossuth Lajos Square with the Hungarian parliament building and the city's Chain Bridge as a backdrop.
Francis spoke of the "closed doors of our selfishness with regard to others; the closed doors of our individualism amid a society of growing isolation; the closed doors of our indifference towards the underprivileged and those who suffer; the doors we close towards those who are foreign or unlike us, towards migrants, or the poor” as he addressed tens of thousands of worshippers gathered on the square and in the surrounding streets.
"I am asking you, let's open the gates!" he said. "Let's try to be gates that are not slammed in front of anyone, through which everyone can enter."
Francis has previously expressed appreciation for Hungary allowing in Ukrainian refugees but also has challenged Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s hard-line anti-immigration policies.
Orban, who attended the Mass, has had disagreements with European leaders over those policies and over his government's refusal to send arms to Ukraine. In addition, the U.S. ambassador to Hungary has said his calls for a cease-fire and peace talks in Ukraine amounted to “appeasement masquerading as peace.”
Francis concluded the Mass with a prayer for peace in Ukraine and “a future of hope, not war; a future full of cradles, not tombs; a world of brothers and sisters, not walls.”
Francis, 86, has previously pleaded for an end to the war, expressing solidarity with Ukrainians while keeping the door open to dialogue with Moscow.
The pontiff arrived in Budapest on April 28, issuing a call for a return to the "European spirit" envisioned by the founders of modern Europe after World War II and urging nations to "look beyond national boundaries."
He met on April 29 with an envoy of Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has firmly supported Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Francis had what the Vatican said was a “cordial” 20-minute meeting with Metropolitan Hilarion at the Vatican Embassy in Budapest. In a sign of respect for the Russian Orthodox Church, he kissed Metropolitan Hilarion's cross, the Vatican said.
In his final event in Hungary, Francis on April 30 warned against the dangers of technology dominating human life, saying culture and education are the antidote to a future dictated by technology.