Pope Francis in final Mass in Budapest urges Hungary to open doors

Pope Francis urged Hungarians to open ir doors to ors on Sunday, as he wrapped up a weekend visit with a plea for Europe to welcome migrants and poor and for an end to Russia's war in Ukraine.

Francis issued appeal from banks of Danube as he celebrated Mass on Budapest's Kossuth Lajos Square, with Hungarian Parliament and Budapest's famed Chain Bridge as a backdrop.

celebration provided visual highlight of Francis' three-day visit that has been dominated by Vatican's concern for plight of neighbouring Ukraine.

Citing local organisers, Vatican said some 50,000 people attended Mass, more than 30,000 of m in square on a brilliantly sunny spring morning.

Among m were President Katalin vak and Hungary's right-wing populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, whose lukewarm support for Ukraine has rankled fellow European Union members.

Francis has expressed appreciation for Hungary's recent welcome of Ukrainian refugees. But he has challenged Orban's hard-line anti-immigration policies, which in 2015-2016 included building a razor wire fence on border with Serbia to stop people from entering.

Upon arrival, Francis urged Hungary and Europe as a whole to welcome those who are fleeing war, poverty and climate change, calling for safe and legal migration corridors.

“How sad and painful it is to see closed doors,” Francis said in his Sunday homily on Danube. “ closed doors of our selfishness with regard to ors; closed doors of our individualism amid a society of growing isolation; closed doors of our indifference towards underprivileged and those who suffer; doors we close towards those who are foreign or unlike us, towards migrants or poor,” Francis said.

In a final prayer at end of Mass, Francis prayed for peace in Ukraine and “a future of hope, t war, a future full of cradles, t tombs, a world of brors and sisters, t walls.” 86-year-old Francis has tried to forge a diplomatic balancing act in his pleas to end Russia's war, expressing solidarity with Ukrainians while keeping door open to dialogue with Moscow.

On Saturday, he prayed with Ukrainian refugees and n met with an envoy of Russian Patriarch Kirill, who has firmly supported Moscow's invasion and justified it as a metaphysical battle against liberal West.

Francis kissed cross of Metropolitan Hilarion in a sign of respect for Russian Orthodox Church during what Vatican said was a “cordial” 20-minute meeting at Vatican's embassy in Budapest.

Hilarion, who developed good relations with Vatican as Russian church's longtime foreign minister, said he briefed Francis on his work w as Moscow Patriarchate's representative in Budapest.

Hilarion attended Francis' Sunday Mass, along with representatives of Hungary's or Christian churches and Jewish community, Vatican News said.

Francis' visit to Hungary, his second in as many years, brought him as close as he's been to Ukrainian front but also to heart of Europe, where Orban's avowedly right-wing Christian government has cast itself as a bulwark against a secularising Western world.

Francis, though, has used visit to call for continent to find again its spirit of unity and purpose, referencing Budapest's bridges across Danube as symbols of unity and connection.

visit comes as European Union's legislature continues to put pressure on Hungary to counter what EU lawmakers consider a deterioration in rule of law and democratic principles, including media freedom and LGBTQ+ rights.

site for his final Mass couldn't have been more appropriate for Francis' mess: sprawling square is named for one of Hungary's most famous statesmen who served as its first prime minister after 1848-1849 revolution against Habsburg rule.

It is separated from left bank of Danube river only by Hungary's iconic neo-Gothic parliament, country's largest building and home of its National Assembly. Nearby is Chain Bridge, one of several bridges spanning river and linking Pest and Buda sides of city.

Sister Marta, a nun of Hungarian origin from Brazil who attended Mass, said she hoped Francis' mess of welcome would be heard in Hungary. “We (Brazilians) have gotten accustomed to openness towards ors, and we hope that Hungary as well will open in this direction,” she said after liturgy.

But Budapest resident Er Sara said country is fine as it is.

“I don't kw if we (Hungarians) need to change. re is thing at all in this country that is out of ordinary, any kind of behaviour that we would have to change,” Sara said.

Francis ends his visit Sunday with a speech on European culture at Budapest's Pazmany Peter Catholic University.