MIERCUREA CIUC, Romania (AP)—On Saturday, Pope Francis braved rain-soaked, twisting pressure through the mountains of Transylvania to visit Romania’s most sacred shrine, urging Romanian and ethnic Hungarian devotees to work collectively for their future.
Storms pressured Francis to alternate his travel plans and upload a 3-hour vehicle ride through the Carpathian mountains he had planned to traverse through a helicopter. The constant rains doused the envisioned eighty 000-a hundred 000 folks who collected for the Mass on the Sumuleu Ciuc shrine devoted to the Virgin Mary.
The showers permitted up as Francis arrived, and he briefly ran through the poncho-clad crowds in his popemobile. But the 82-12 months-antique appeared unsteady after the long ride and held onto the arms of aides as he negotiated a dust-slicked course to get to the altar for Mass.
In his homily, Francis praised the multicultural and multilingual tapestry that made up Romania and advised its human beings to put aside beyond divisions for the sake of “traveling collectively.”
The rights of around 1.2 million ethnic Hungarians who live in Romania have been at the center of political disputes between the two countries for decades. Hungary lost Transylvania in the peace treaties after World War I, yet the place remains closely Hungarian in both subculture and language.
Those tensions are regularly pondered in the uneasy relationship between the predominantly Hungarian Roman Catholic network and the Romanian-speaking Greek-Catholic groups. The two rites make up Romania’s Catholic minority in the overwhelmingly Orthodox United States of America.
“Complicated and sorrow-crammed conditions from the past need not be forgotten or denied, but neither must they be an impediment or an excuse standing in the manner of our choice to stay together as brothers and sisters,” Francis stated.
The Pope introduced the homily in Italian, translating it into Romanian and Hungarian.
After Mass, with the climate improving, Francis was able to fly by helicopter back to the airport for a flight to another corner of Romania, the university town of Iasi in the northeast. There, he had an appointment with younger Romanians and their families.
“It is a joy, it’s miles a joy,” stated 71-year-old Elisabeta Balan, the mom of eleven children who became among those selected to meet with the Pope in Iasi. We are delighted that he is available in Iasi, and for this event, we succeeded in bringing our big family together.”
Francis changed into journeying throughout Romania to visit its far-flung Catholic groups. His ride aimed to compensate for the fact that St. John Paul II became the simplest person allowed to visit the capital, Bucharest, in 1999, during the first papal visit to a majority Orthodox country.
On Sunday, Francis travels to the Greek-Catholic stronghold of Blaj to satisfy people from the deprived Roma minority. He also plans to beatify seven bishops who were martyred at some point during a brutal length of communist persecution in Romania, then go back to Rome. Olimpiu Gheorghiu contributed from Iasi, Romania. Winfield suggested from Rome.
