President Tamás Sulyok has met with Pope Francis in Vatican City.
After his meeting with the pontiff, President Sulyok said they had discussed “the future of our communities”. He said the meeting had also covered a personal topic concerning one of the messages in the speech delivered by Francis during his visit to Budapest last year. Sulyok noted that the pope had mentioned King Saint Stephen’s instruction to his son to “never fight against justice”. Sulyok said he had asked Francis if he would “gift” this instruction to him to use as a motto, and the pontiff “gladly did so”. He said he had gifted the pontiff an ornamental copy of the Chronicon Pictum, a tablecloth with Matyó embroidery, painted eggs in a decorative box and had shared with him the legend of the history of Matyó embroidery. The president said he had also given the pope a volume of Saint Stephen’s instructions to his son, Saint Emeric. Sulyok on Thursday was also at the pope’s private audience with the participants of the Hungarian National Pilgrimage before attending the holy mass to close out the pilgrimage at St. Peter’s Basilica. Some 1,500 Hungarians from Hungary and beyond the border as well as those from Hungarian communities from the West took part in the Hungarian National Pilgrimage organised by the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference (MKPK). On Friday, Sulyok is scheduled to meet Fra John Dunlap, Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malt