BUDAPEST — Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary portrays himself because the defender of Christian Europe against migrants and multiculturalism. After years of his weakening of democratic establishments, the far-right strongman has ready for coming elections in Catholic-majority Hungary by strengthening his hyperlinks to Catholic traditionalists in Europe and the US.
On Sunday, Mr. Orban will get a go to from the chief of the Roman Catholic world himself when Pope Francis drops into city to have fun Mass. Allies of Mr. Orban, who’s more and more remoted and infrequently receives high-profile visits from Western leaders, desperately sought to make sure face time with the pontiff, and the Vatican has confirmed a non-public courtesy assembly earlier than the Mass.
However additionally it is doable, folks near Francis say, that Mr. Orban may get greater than he requested for when he meets with maybe the globe’s main champion of migrants and a transparent voice in opposition to creeping authoritarianism and nationalism in Europe.
“Certainly one of my methods is to not go round with a script,” Francis mentioned in an interview with Spanish radio community COPE final month when requested what he anticipated to say to Mr. Orban. “When I’m in entrance of an individual, I look him within the eyes and let issues come out.”
Whether or not Francis reads Mr. Orban the riot act on his first journey to Hungary — and his first trip abroad after major colon surgery in July — the assembly between two leaders with starkly totally different visions for Europe has already set off its fair proportion of intrigue, drama and title calling.
Francis initially had deliberate to go to Budapest for only some hours, earlier than persevering with on for 3 full days to neighboring Slovakia, which is led by a young, pro-environment woman.
Hungary’s high clerics and authorities officers lobbied the Vatican for extra time, whereas Mr. Orban’s allies within the information media, the place his get together holds nice sway, utilized much less well mannered stress, excoriating Francis for insulting Hungary and “behaving in an anti-Christian method,” and for “inflicting extraordinary harm to the Christian world.”
The Vatican tried to decrease the temperature by flattening the notion — first floated by Francis and later amplified in conservative Catholic media retailers — {that a} assembly with Mr. Orban was ever doubtful. The go to to Hungary was of layover size, the Vatican mentioned, as a result of it was non secular in nature, with the pope there to preside over the ultimate Mass of a weeklong Catholic Congress.
However the disparity between the period of the journeys to Hungary and Slovakia, Francis’ allies instructed, was maybe no accident.
“You may interpret the truth that he’s not making a protracted go to,” mentioned the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit priest and confidant of Francis who will journey with him. “It’s a quick go to. Additionally, this could have a significance.”
Father Spadaro mentioned he had no thought what Francis would say to the prime minister, however he anticipated the true message to Mr. Orban about his authorities’s insurance policies would come after their personal encounter, when the pope addresses about 35 Hungarian bishops.
“The confrontation with the nation will occur for the time being he speaks to its bishops,” mentioned Father Spadaro, including that he would almost certainly handle the context, and the federal government, inside which his bishops needed to function. “That’s the correct area for it.”
After years of surging populism, when Mr. Orban and different nationalists appeared on the upswing and Francis found himself in the political wilderness, the pope once more has outstanding allies in the US and all through Europe on points like local weather change.
However lots of Hungary’s bishops are torn between their pontiff, who needs his monks to be on the entrance traces serving to migrants and the destitute, and an Orban authorities, which showers the church with tens of millions of {dollars} in subsidies for restorations and colleges; enacts what the federal government calls pro-family “Christian” insurance policies; and establishes places of work to guard persecuted Christians in far-off lands.
“The first drawback is that the massive funding from the federal government is compromising the church’s independence,” mentioned Bishop Miklos Beer, one in every of Hungary’s few bishops keen to talk critically of Mr. Orban. “There’s silence on the a part of the church on the difficulty of migration and that is the difficulty the place we have to must symbolize what the pope says.”
That lack of independence was harmful, Bishop Beer mentioned on Friday, as a result of it probably tied the Hungarian church’s destiny, and its monetary help, to Mr. Orban’s electoral success. He mentioned that Mr. Orban was perilously wrapping himself in Christian imagery; reaching out to Catholic traditionalists, lots of whom oppose Francis; and in search of to satisfy the pope — all to win the election anticipated in April.
“I don’t assume there may be any query about how he hopes to guard his voter base,” Bishop Beer mentioned.
And there’s no doubt, both, in how Mr. Orban’s voter base within the church is defending the prime minister.
Talking on the headquarters of the 52nd Worldwide Eucharistic Congress, which Budapest is internet hosting, one of many occasion’s organizers, the Rev. Kornel Fabry, mentioned on Friday that he didn’t assume Mr. Orban and Francis have been “so removed from each other.” He argued that Francis would agree with Mr. Orban on valuing household and nation earlier than outsiders. (Francis has basically mentioned the alternative, stipulating that caring for migrants and the poor was as holy as opposing abortion.)
“They wish to shield Christian values,” Father Fabry mentioned of Mr. Orban’s authorities. He defended Mr. Orban from accusations of demagogy and dictatorship, arguing that there have been “increasingly followers of Orban” in Europe, even though his allies in Italy and Germany have misplaced floor.
The federal government’s speaking factors have additionally trickled all the way down to monks within the metropolis’s church buildings.
“It’s not solely about opening up doorways to the surface however how we are able to strengthen the church from the within,” mentioned the Rev. Kazmer Karpati, a priest at a Franciscan church in central Budapest, who mentioned his order had benefited from the largess of the state. He was joyful Mr. Orban was assembly the pope, in order that “the 2 higher perceive one another.”
Some Hungarian clerics labored exhausting to make sure that the assembly occurred and that the pope stayed so long as doable.
Requested about his function in extending the pope’s journey so Francis might meet native authorities, Cardinal Peter Erdo, Hungary’s strongest prelate, mentioned in an electronic mail that “the truth that the Holy Father, regardless of his temporary time, might meet the representatives from the political world,” in addition to leaders of different faiths, is a “nice signal of his friendship.”
Msgr. Norbert Nemeth, an adviser to the Hungarian Embassy to the Holy See, mentioned he labored with the Vatican on getting ready the pope’s journey.
“The Hungarian bishops wished him to remain longer, for the afternoon and even the following day,” mentioned Monsignor Nemeth, who insisted {that a} assembly with Mr. Orban was at all times on the books as a result of the pope “couldn’t keep away from these conferences of protocol.” He added that Francis “will not be assembly an individual who doesn’t settle for Christian values.”
“On the contrary,” Monsignor Nemeth mentioned, “this authorities is basically very Christian and helps the church in Hungary.”
Nonetheless, he acknowledged, “the primary program had different encounters, different locations of assembly.”
However he mentioned the Vatican advised the Hungarians to maintain the pope’s go to centered subsequent to the Sq. of the Heroes, the place Sunday’s Mass is scheduled.
“We wished to assist the Holy Father on this sense, as a result of he’s aged and simply had a surgical procedure,” Monsignor Nemeth mentioned.
After about seven hours in Budapest, Francis will spend the next three days on planes and in motorcades traversing a lot of Slovakia in an exhausting schedule of speeches and conferences. “So we sacrificed his journey somewhat,” Monsignor Nemeth mentioned, “in response to the needs of the Holy See.”
