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Pope Francis asks Hungarians to open their doors to immigrants

2023-05-01 07:40:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Pope Francis

Pope Francis has urged Hungarians to open their doors to immigrants, ending his visit to the country led by a nationalist anti-immigration cabinet.

Speaking at an open mass in the capital Budapest, the Pope said it was sad and painful to see doors closed to people.

Up to 100,000 people attended the mass, including Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Orban has criticized migration, building a barbed-wire border fence to stop migrants crossing into Hungary.

Addressing a crowd outside the Hungarian parliament building on Sunday, Pope Francis pleaded with everyone - including "those with political and social responsibilities" - to be more open.

He was talking about "the closed doors of our selfishness towards others... the doors we close to those who are foreign or different from us, to immigrants or the poor".

During the Mass, the Argentine Pope, 86, also referred to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, set to begin in February 2022.

He prayed for "the besieged Ukrainian people and the Russian people" and for "a future of hope, not war."

He then said the Vatican was involved in a peacekeeping mission to try to end the war.

He said the Vatican was ready to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia since the invasion. Kiev says thousands of Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia and calls it a war crime.

The pope said he had discussed the Ukraine conflict with Mr. Orban and a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The three-day visit was Pope Francis' first trip to Hungary.

What kept him away was Mr Orban's hard-line anti-immigrant stance, in contrast to his compassion for all refugees, says the BBC's Nick Thorpe in Budapest.

Unlike other European Union leaders, Orban has refused to support military aid to Ukraine and has maintained relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

During the carefully calibrated visit to Hungary, the Pope met people from all walks of life, including the young, the poor, politicians and academics, says our correspondent./ CNA.al