like a rock star in a stadium with 12,500 young people

He Pope Francisco has taken advantage of his trip to Hungary to celebrate a ‘macro meeting’ with more than 12,500 young people, in the stadium Papp Laszlo from Budapest. In this stadium for major sporting events and concertsthe pope was hailed as a real star by the young men when he rode among them in a golf carwhile among the gifts they gave him was a Rubik’s cube, the brilliant invention of the Hungarian architect Emo Rubik.

The Pontiff invited them to cultivate silence, but “not to stay glued to the mobile and social networks” because “life is real, not virtual and it doesn’t happen on a screen”. In addition, he urged those present “not to be lazy and lazy”, assuring that Jesus “he is not the superhero of a comic” but “best of friends” and “the best of brothers”.

Although close to 60% of the Hungarian population considers itself Catholicthe Pope has encouraged them to “don’t be afraid to go against the currentto find a time of silence every day to stop and pray”.

“Jesus is glad that we reach great goals. He doesn’t want us lazy and lazy, he doesn’t want us quiet and timid; He wants us alive, active, protagonists”, exclaimed the Pontiff in his address at the László Papp Budapest Spots Arena, where tens of thousands of thousands of young people danced, sang and shouted

According to Francis, “There are two fundamental steps, as in sport” for victory: “first, aim high; second, train.” Thus, he has urged young people not to put aside their talents “thinking that the minimum is enough to be happy: a title, a job to earn money, have some fun…”.

Contrary to Orbán

In his first speech upon his arrival in Budapest Last Friday, the Pope warned the Hungarian government of the dangers of rise of nationalism in europe. Along the same lines, he asked Hungary to accept immigrantslike the rest of European countries, since it would be a true gesture of Christianity.

Francis also urged a rejection of “self-referential forms of populism” and strictly nationalist interests, a message aimed squarely at government leaders, including the prime minister Viktor Orbanwhich has had a series of run-ins with the European Union.

[El Papa llega a Hungría y pide a Orbán que acepte inmigrantes como “signo de cristianismo”]

invasion of Ukraine

The Pope has not missed the opportunity to meet, for just 20 minutes, with Hilarion, who was a representative of the russian orthodox church and that he was dismissed for not supporting the invasion of Ukraine, ordered by Vladimir Putin.

The meeting, which was not included in the trip’s agenda, is a new attempt by Pope Francis to stop the war in Ukraine, despite the fact that relations with Cyril (Hilarion’s successor) have cooled and the possible meeting, which has been several times organized and cancelled, it seems further and further away.

Ukrainian refugees had the opportunity to tell their stories before the representative of the Church.

meeting with refugees

On his second day of travel, on Saturday, the Pontiff moved to one of the poorest districts of Pest. There he met with some 600 peoplemostly refugees and hosted by Church institutions.

Many of them say that they entered the country through the “balkan route”, the second busiest after the “Mediterranean”. Orbán fortified the wire fence on the border with Serbian and redesigned the asylum procedure after the 2015 refugee crisis, with which they arrived 400,000 irregular emigrants.

Only in 2022, through the new procedure, Hungary hotly expelled 158,000 people and only granted four permits.