Pope meets Orban at start of trip
Meeting was held in a ‘cordial atmosphere’
Video footage of the encounter showed Francis shaking hands with President Janos Ader, Orban and deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen and smiling.
Pope Francis arrived in Hungary on Sunday on his first foreign trip since undergoing intestinal surgery in July, kicking off a four-day pilgrimage with an awkward meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who represents the type of populist, nationalist leader Francis frequently criticises.
Orban, whose anti-migration policies clash with Francis’ call for refugee welcome, greeted the Argentine pope at the Museum of Fine Arts and the two went into a private meeting attended also by the Hungarian president and Vatican officials. Hungary’s hardline stand on migration apparently didn’t come up. “I asked Pope Francis not to let Christian Hungary perish,” Orban wrote on Facebook.
Video footage of the encounter showed Francis shaking hands with President Janos Ader, Orban and deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen and smiling, and then the Hungarian and Vatican sides sitting apart in a cavernous room of the museum.
The Vatican said the meeting was held in a “cordial atmosphere” and lasted longer than expected — 40 minutes.
“Among the various topics discussed were the role of the church in the country, the commitment to the protection of the environment, the protection and promotion of the family,” said a Vatican statement.