Pope Francis has warned the threat of anti-Semitism is “still lurking” in Europe, during a brief trip to Hungary.
He was speaking after meeting Hungary’s populist and anti-immigrant PM Viktor Orban, with whom he has stark differences on the issue of refugees. Mr Orban has also been accused of an anti-Semitic stance, but he has said this is “simply ridiculous”.
In a Facebook post, the PM said he had “asked Pope Francis not to let Christian Hungary perish.”
Pope Francis’ meeting with Mr Orban lasted about 40 minutes in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.
In his address to Christian and Jewish leaders afterwards, Francis warned of “the threat of anti-Semitism still lurking in Europe and elsewhere”.
He said: “This is a fuse that must not be allowed to burn. And the best way to defuse it is to work together, positively, and to promote fraternity.”
Hungary has a large Jewish community – some 100,000 strong.
Mr Orban was criticised for his 2017 election campaign that included posters of Jewish financier George Soros, with the words “Let’s not allow Soros to have the last laugh!” He rejected calls from the Jewish community to take them down.
On a visit to London, the PM denied any anti-Semitism, saying that Mr Soros was simply a rival who favoured migrant movement.
Mr Orban and the Pope certainly have divergent views on refugees and migration.
Some of the PM’s supporters in Hungary, along with pro-Orban media, have in the past mocked the Pope as “anti-Christian” for his comments on helping refugees.
At a Mass later on Sunday, Pope Francis alluded to the issue, saying: “The cross, planted in the ground, not only invites us to be well-rooted, it also raises and extends its arms towards everyone.”
“The cross urges us to keep our roots firm, but without defensiveness… My wish is that you be like that: grounded and open, rooted and considerate,” the Pope said.
Francis was celebrating Mass to mark the end of the Eucharistic Congress, which has attracted tens of thousands of Christians from around the world over the past week.
One worshipper, Eva Mandoki, 82, told Agence France-Presse: “We are not here for any politics, but to see and hear the Pope, the head of the Church. We can hardly wait to see him.”

Pope Francis told Slovakia’s Catholics on September 13 that the Church should respond to secularization with the “creativity of the Gospel,” not “a defensive Catholicism.”
Speaking to clergy and lay people in St. Martin’s Cathedral in the capital, Bratislava, on Sept. 13, the Pope encouraged Catholics to draw inspiration from Sts. Cyril and Methodius, who translated the Bible into the Slavonic language.
“Isn’t this what Slovakia also needs today? I wonder. Isn’t this perhaps the most urgent task facing the Church before the peoples of Europe: finding new ‘alphabets’ to proclaim the faith?” he asked.
“We are heirs to a rich Christian tradition, yet for many people today, that tradition is a relic from the past; it no longer speaks to them or affects the way they live their lives.”
“Faced with the loss of the sense of God and of the joy of faith, it is useless to complain, to hide behind a defensive Catho-licism, to judge and blame the bad world. No, we need the creativity of the Gospel.”
The 84-year-old Pope, who is making his first international trip since undergoing surgery in July, looked at ease as he deli-vered his live-streamed address in the capital’s largest church, located beneath the imposing Bratislava Castle.

Barnabite priest Fr. Giovanni Scalese, ecclesiastical superior of the Catholic mission Sui Iuris in Afghanistan, told la Repu-bblica in late August how he helped 14 disabled children and 5 nuns escape from the embattled city of Kabul.
Father Scalese spoke to the newspaper the day after landing in Rome on Aug. 25, saying, ”I would have never returned to Italy without these children. We couldn’t leave them there.”
The 14 children had been cared for by a group of nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. These nuns have been keeping orphans off the streets of Kabul for the last 20 years. The 14 children were between the ages of 6 and 20, with some confined to wheelchairs.
Scalese updated his followers on social media upon reaching Rome. “We thank the Lord for the success of the operation,” wrote the priest in a Facebook post. A missionary in Afghani-stan for seven years, Scalese told SIR, the media arm for Italian bishops, that he was concerned after the Taliban takeover but felt safe in the Italian embassy.

A prominent Church of England bishop has announced that he is stepping down in five days to become a Catholic. The Bishop of Ebbsfleet Jonathan Goodall, a suffragan in the Canterbury diocese, is resigning after what he described today as “one of the most testing periods of my life.”
His decision after eight years as Bishop of Ebbsfleet – one of the Anglican church’s provincial episcopal visitors, dubbed “fly-ing bishops”, whose role was pastoral care of certain groups of traditionalist parishes – was announced in a statement by Lambeth Palace this morning. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said he had accepted his resignation “with regret.”

Spending time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament can heal Christians from a self-absorbed religiosity that is ostentatious and triumphalist, Pope Francis said.
Presiding over the closing Mass of the International Eu-charistic Congress September 12, the Pope urged people to make time for Eucharistic adoration.
“Let us allow Jesus, the living bread, to heal us of our self-absorption, open our hearts to self-giving, liberate us from our rigidity and self-concern, free us from the paralyzing slavery of defending our image, and inspire us to follow him wherever he would lead us,” he said.
After departing from Rome’s Fiumicino in the early morning, the pope told journalists aboard the flight that the papal trip had “a bit of a farewell feeling” due to it being the last time that Bishop-designate Guido Marini would serve as papal master of ceremonies. The Pope named the bishop-designate to lead the Diocese of Tortona, Italy.
Pope Francis also noted that it was the final papal flight aboard Alitalia, which will shutter operations in October after serving 75 years as Italy’s national airline.
Landing in Budapest, the pope was welcomed by Hun-garian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén. He then made his way to the Museum of Fine Arts near the site of the closing Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress.
The Vatican said Pope Francis met privately with Hungarian President János Áder, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Semjén for roughly 40 minutes “in a cordial atmosphere.”
“Among the various topics discussed were the role of the church in the country, the commitment to the protection of the environment, the protection and promotion of the family,” the Vatican said.
In a statement on his Facebook page, Orbán, who views migration as a threat to Europe’s Christian identity, said, “I asked Pope Francis not to let Christian Hungary perish.”
Pope Francis, arriving in his pope mobile, was greeted warmly by thousands who lined the street leading toward the Mass site in Heroes’ Square.
In the homily, Pope Francis reflected on the Sunday Gospel reading, in which Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”