Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Pope urges unity in Romania
Francis touts diversity, urges faithful to put tensions aside
MIERCUREA CIUC, Romania — Pope Francis faced a rain-soaked drive through the mountains of Transylvania on Saturday before his visit to Romania’s most famous shrine, where he urged Romanian and ethnic Hungarian faithful to work together for their future.
Storms forced Francis to change his travel plans and add a three-hour car ride through the Carpathian Mountains, which he had planned to traverse via helicopter. The steady rains doused the estimated 80,000100,000 people who gathered for Mass at the Sumuleu Ciuc shrine, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
The showers let up as Francis arrived, and he made a quick tour through the poncho-clad crowds in his popemobile. The 82-year-old then held onto the arms of aides as he negotiated a mud-slicked path to get to the altar for Mass.
In his homily, Francis praised the multicultural and multilingual tapestry of Romania and urged its people to put aside past divisions for the sake of “journeying together.”
The rights of about 1.2 million ethnic Hungarians who live in Romania have been at the center of political disputes between the two countries for decades. Hungary lost Transylvania in the peace treaties after World War I, yet the region remains heavily Hungarian in both culture and language.
The tensions are often reflected in the uneasy relationship between the predominantly Hungarian Roman Catholic community and the Romanian-speaking Greek-Catholic communities. The two groups make up Romania’s Catholic minority in the overwhelmingly Orthodox country.
“Complicated and sorrow-filled situations from the past must not be forgotten or denied, yet neither must they be an obstacle or an excuse standing in the way of our desire to live together as brothers and sisters,” Francis said.
The pope delivered the homily in Italian, and it was translated into Romanian and Hungarian.
After Mass, with more favorable weather, Francis was able to fly by helicopter back to the airport for a flight to another corner of Romania, the university city of Iasi in the northeast. There he had an appointment with young Romanians and their families.
“It is a joy; it is a joy,” said 71-year-old Elisabeta Balan, a mother of 11 children who was among those chosen to address the pope in Iasi. “We are very happy that he comes in Iasi, and for this occasion we succeeded in bringing our big family together.”
Francis was traveling across Romania to visit its far-flung Catholic communities. St. John Paul II was only allowed to visit the capital, Bucharest, in 1999 in the first papal visit to a majority Orthodox country.
Today, Francis will travel to the city of Blaj, which has a large Greek-Catholic community, to meet with people from the disadvantaged Roma minority. Before returning to Rome, he also plans to beatify seven bishops who were martyred during a period of communist persecution in Romania.