Sharjah24 - AFP: Pope Francis is travelling to Hungary on Friday to meet with Ukrainian refugees and Viktor Orban, a nationalist politician with whom he has not always agreed. This trip comes weeks after a health scare for the pope.
The 86-year-old pontiff spent three nights in hospital with bronchitis at the end of last month, a stay that fuelled concerns about his long-term health and future as head of the worldwide Catholic Church.
While in Budapest, he will as usual be accompanied by his doctor. His trip had already been adapted to account for his increasing use of a wheelchair, due to knee pain.
The war in neighbouring Ukraine is likely to dominate the visit to the central European nation, of whom 39 percent are Catholic, according to 2011 figures.
More than a million Ukrainians have crossed the border into Hungary since Russia's February 2022 invasion, and 35,000 have asked for temporary protection status, according to United Nations figures.
During an audience with Orban a year ago at the Vatican, the pope thanked the Hungarian leader -- who comes from a Calvinist background -- for the welcome accorded to refugees.
But Orban's anti-migration rhetoric, couched in terms of defending "Christian Europe", is at odds with the pope's repeated calls for European nations to welcome those fleeing poverty or conflict.
It is the pope's second visit to Budapest after a short stop-over in September 2021 for an international religious event.
On Sunday, Francis said he would be visiting "as a pilgrim, friend and brother of all".
He described it as a "journey to the centre of Europe, over which the icy winds of war continue to blow, while the displacement of so many people puts urgent humanitarian questions on the agenda".
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