Pope Francis arrives in Hungary and meets Viktor Orban

Rome Newsroom, Sep 12, 2021 / 02:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis arrived Sunday morning in Hungary, where he met briefly with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The pope’s arrival in Budapest on Sept. 12 marks the 84-year-old pontiff’s first international trip since his colon surgery in July.

Pope Francis will spend roughly seven hours in Hungary, where he will offer the closing Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress, before flying on Sunday afternoon to Slovakia, where he will visit four cities on Sept. 12-15.

The pope’s meeting with Orbán, with whom he sharply disagrees on migration, and Hungarian President János Áder took place at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The leaders met privately for about 15 minutes.

A photograph of the three men meeting was posted on Orbán’s Instagram account.

A photograph posted on the Twitter account of Vatican News showed the men sitting inside the museum, with the pope on one side, flanked by senior Vatican officials, and Orbán and Áder on the other.

Immediately after the meeting, which had been scheduled to last 30 minutes, the pope gave a speech to the bishops of Hungary. He then took part in an ecumenical meeting with leaders of Hungary’s Protestant Christian, as well as representatives of the country’s Jewish communities.