Addressing a press conference on the plane back to Rome, Francis said the Holy See is ready to work to get Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia back home.

From the press room, with Vatican News

The work of the Holy See to facilitate the return to their homeland of Ukrainian children taken to Russia during war, peace, contacts with the Kremlin and ecumenical dialogue. These were some of the questions posed by journalists to Pope Francis during a press conference on the plane, held this Sunday, 30, after the Holy Father’s trip to Hungary.

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The pontiff also spoke about his health, after being admitted to the Gemelli hospital, the week before Palm Sunday, in addition to commenting on the return of fragments of the Parthenon to Greece, an example for future similar gestures. Check out the pope’s questions and answers in full:

Hungary

Antal Hubai (Rtl Klub) – What was your personal experience of dating in Hungary?

Pope Francis – I had this first encounter experience in the 1960s, when many Hungarian Jesuits were expelled from their country. Then schools were created… there was a school 20 km from Buenos Aires and I visited it twice a month. Subsequently, he also maintained contact with an institution of Hungarian lay people working in Buenos Aires. I did not understand the language. But two words that I understood well: Gulash and Tokai (laughs). It was a nice experience. I was very impressed by the pain of being a refugee and not being able to return home. Maria Ward’s nuns remained there, hiding in apartments so the regime wouldn’t evict them. Later I learned more details about the whole affair in order to convince Cardinal Mindszenty to go to Rome. And I also experienced the brief enthusiasm of 1956 and then the disillusionment.

Antal Hubai (Rtl Klub) – Has your opinion changed since then?

Pope Francis – It hasn’t changed, it’s been enriched. In the sense that the Hungarians I met have a great culture….

Antal Hubai (Rtl Klub) – What language did they speak?

They usually spoke German or English. Hungarian is not spoken outside of Hungary. Only in heaven, because they say it takes forever to learn (laughs).

Migrants and borders

Eliana Ruggiero (AGI) – Holy Father, you have launched an appeal to open – to reopen – the doors of our selfishness to the poor, to the migrants, to those who are in hiding. During your meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán, did you ask him to reopen the borders of the Balkan route that he closed? Then, in recent days, you also met Metropolitan Hilarion: Hilarion and Orbán himself can become channels of opening to Moscow to speed up a peace process for Ukraine, or make possible a meeting between you and the President Cheese fries ? THANKS.

Pope Francis – I believe that peace is always made by opening channels, peace can never be made by closing them. I invite everyone to open relationships, friendship channels… It’s not easy. The same speech that I made in general, I made it with Orbán and I made it almost everywhere. On migration: I think this is a problem that Europe has to face, because there are five countries that are suffering the most: Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Italy and Spain, because these are the countries Mediterranean and there. And if Europe does not take up this question of a fair distribution of migrants, the problem will only be for these countries. I believe that Europe should also give the impression of being the European Union in this respect. There is another problem that is linked to migration, and that is the birth rate. There are countries like Italy and Spain that have no children.

Last year I spoke at a family meeting about this and lately I have seen the government and other governments talking about it as well. The average age in Italy is 46, for Spain it is even higher and there are small deserted villages. A migration program, but carried out with the model that certain countries had with migration – I am thinking of Sweden during the era of the Latin American dictatorships – can also help countries that have a low percentage of births. So in the end, what was the last? Oh yes, Hilarion: Hilarion is someone I respect a lot, and we’ve always had a good relationship. And he was kind enough to come see me, then he was at mass and I saw him there too, at the airport. Hilarion is a smart person to talk to, and those relationships have to be nurtured, because if you’re talking about ecumenism – I like it, I don’t like it…you have to reach out to everyone, reach out also the hand [deles?]. I have only spoken to Patriarch Cyril once since the start of the war, 40 minutes via zoom, then through Antoine, who now takes the place of Hilarion, who comes to see me: is a bishop who has been parish priest in Rome and knows the environment well, and I am still in touch with Kirill through him. The meeting we were to have in Jerusalem in July or June of last year is suspended, but because of the war it has been suspended: it will have to be done. And then, with the Russians, I have good relations with the ambassador who is leaving now, ambassador to the Vatican for seven years, he is a great man, a decent man. A serious, cultured, very balanced person. The relationship with the Russians is mainly with this ambassador. I don’t know if I said everything. That’s it? Or did I skip something?

Peace

Eliana Ruggiero – could Hilarion or even Orbán somehow speed up the peace process in Ukraine and also make possible a meeting between you and Putin, if they could act – in quotes – as intermediaries?

Pope Francis – You can imagine that at this meeting we didn’t just talk about Little Red Riding Hood, right? We talk about all these things. We talk about it because everyone is interested in the path to peace. I am disposed. I am ready to do whatever it takes. Also, there’s a quest going on right now, but it’s not public yet. Let’s see how… When it’s public, I’ll say.

JMJ

Aura Vistas – The next stop is Lisbon, how do you feel about your health? We were taken by surprise when he went to the hospital, he said he passed out, so do you have the energy to go to WYD? And would you like an event with young Ukrainians and Russians, as a signal to the new generations?

Pope Francis – First, health. What I had was a great discomfort at the end of Wednesday’s hearing, I didn’t feel like having lunch, I lay down for a while, I didn’t lose consciousness, but yes, I had a very high fever and at three o’clock in the afternoon, the doctor immediately took me to the hospital. I had severe acute pneumonia, in the lower part of the lung, but thank God I can tell you that the body reacted well. Thank God. That’s what I have. About Lisbon: the day before my departure, I spoke with Dom Américo who came to see how things were going. I will go I will go. I hope to get there, you see it’s not the same as two years ago, with the bat now it’s better and for the moment the trip is not canceled. Then there’s the trip to Marseille, then there’s the trip to Mongolia, then there’s the last one, I don’t know where… yet the program gets me moving.

What about young people from Russia and Ukraine?

Americo has something in mind, he’s up to something, he told me. He is preparing well.

Ecumenism

Nicole Winfield – Holy Father, I wanted to ask you something a little different: recently you made a very strong ecumenical gesture, you donated three fragments of the Parthenon sculptures to Greece on behalf of the Vatican Museums . This gesture also resonated outside the Orthodox world, because many Western museums specifically evoke the restitution of the colonial period, as an act of justice towards these peoples. I would like to ask if you are also available for other refunds. I am thinking of the indigenous peoples and groups of Canada who have requested the return of objects from the Vatican collections as part of the process of repairing the damage suffered during the colonial period.

Pope Francis – But it’s the seventh commandment: if you stole it, you must return it. But there is a whole story, that sometimes wars and colonizations lead to decisions to take the good things from others. It was a correct gesture, it had to be done: the Parthenon, give something. And if tomorrow the Egyptians come to ask for the obelisk, what will we do? But you have to be discerning in each case. And then the restitution of indigenous things is underway with Canada, at least we have agreed to do so. Now I’m going to ask you where you are. But the experience with the aborigines of Canada was very fruitful.

In the United States also, the Jesuits are doing something with this group of natives of the United States. The general told me the other day. But back to the restitution. Insofar as it is possible to render, what is necessary, what is a gesture, it is better to do so. Sometimes it’s not possible, there is no political, real, concrete possibility. But as far as it can be restored, please let it be; It’s good for everyone. So you don’t get used to sticking your hands in other people’s pockets.

ukrainian children

Eva Fernandez: The Prime Minister of Ukraine has asked for your help in bringing the children who were forcibly taken back to Russia.

Pope Francis – I think so, because the Holy See has acted as an intermediary in certain prisoner exchange situations, and through the embassy it went well, I think it could also well pass. It is important, the Holy See is ready to do it because it is right, it is a right thing and we must help, so that it is not a casus belli, but a human case. It is a problem of humanity before being a problem of spoils of war or war movement. All human gestures help, on the contrary, gestures of cruelty do not help. We must do everything humanly possible.

I am also thinking, I mean, of the women who come to our countries: Italy, Spain, Poland, Hungary, so many women who come with children and husbands, or who are wives… or who the war. It is true that at the moment we are helping them, but we cannot lose the enthusiasm to do so, because if the enthusiasm wanes, these women find themselves without protection, with the danger of falling into the hands of the vultures that always watch for these situations. Let’s be careful not to lose this tension of aid that we have with the refugees, it concerns everyone.

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