Cardinal Erdő said Pope Francis “represented the cause of peace consistently”.
“We fondly remember the Holy Father’s visits to Hungary in 2021 and 2023, when it was clear that he held the Hungarian people close to his heart,” Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, said on public news channel M1 on Monday.
Cardinal Erdő said Pope Francis “represented the cause of peace consistently”.
The pontiff did not see Europe through the lens of a European, but as a Latin American. “This is important because Europe is not the world; it is very important and we love it, but the world is bigger. And we must be Europeans while also perceiving the movement of the whole world. This is something we could learn from him,” Cardinal Erdő said.
Pope Francis paid special attention to those living on the periphery, both of society and of the world, with whom others barely had contact. It was also important that he purposefully strengthened dialogue with other religions, the cardinal said. “So he loved to cross walls, loved to open doors,” he added.
Commenting on his personal ties with the pope, Cardinal Erdő qualified it as a “lively relationship”, adding that they had met “very often”. Regarding bishops’ conferences, he said: “Everything he told us was very sincere and constructive.”
