Budapest, April 28, (dpa/GNA) – Pope Francis arrived in Budapest on a special plane from the Italian airline Ita on Friday morning for the start of his visit to Hungary.
The head of the Catholic Church stepped off the plane and surprisingly made his way on foot rather than in a wheelchair to the Hungarian delegation, which welcomed him at the airport to applause.
Two children in traditional dress presented him with bread and salt as a welcome gift, a customary gesture in Central Europe.
Later, Francis is due to be received by Hungarian President Katalin Novák at Sándor Palace in the historic castle district, after which he is expected to meet Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
His first address is scheduled for around noon (1000 GMT) at the prime minister’s official residence, which used to be a Carmelite monastery.
The pontiff visited Budapest in 2021 to close the World Eucharistic Congress with a solemn Mass. As Francis has previously said, he wants this trip to “continue and round off” that previous visit. He also regards the trip as an opportunity to see again a Church and a people that he says are very dear to him.
The pope’s current trip is the first since his recent hospitalization. It will also be the first time he has been to a country directly bordering Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022.
He himself described his visit as a “journey to the centre of Europe, over which the icy winds of war continue to blow.”
GNA