On his first trip after colon surgery, Pope Francis to visit controversial Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

Pope Francis will make his first trip since Operation Columbus on September 12, in a demanding journey that will take him to Slovakia and Hungary, where he will meet Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as the Vatican announced on Wednesday.

Francisco, 84, admitted that on his last trip, the one he made to Iraq in March, he felt exhausted and he considered the possibility of alleviating his frenzied route.

It was before operation in which part of your colon has been removed. The pontiff was 10 days in a hospital in Rome until a few days ago, and he is still recovering.

Despite this, the itinerary published this Wednesday shows no lethargy. In fact, it includes encounters that go beyond the typical political and religious events of their travels, such as meetings with Jewish and Roma (Gypsy) groups and with the Speaker of the Slovak Parliament.

This European country is the main destination of the next itinerary. Francis will be in Budapest for less than seven hours on September 12, mainly to celebrate the closing Mass of an international Eucharistic conclave.

Not that you reject your visit to Hungary. There he will meet Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and hold back-to-back meetings with Hungarian bishops and with representatives of Christian and Jewish groups.

But the shortened route in Hungary seems to reflect Francisco doesn’t want to appear to be too supportive of the right-wing Orban government, with which he has deep differences on migration and other issues.

After a brief stopover in Budapest, François will arrive on September 12 in the Slovak capital, Bratislava, where he will immediately attend a ecumenical meeting and from there to a meeting with the members of his Jesuit order.

The next day will be spent in Bratislava with formal visits to political leaders and speeches to diplomatic and civil society groups, in addition to meetings with priests, nuns and bishops. In the afternoon he will meet representatives of the Slovak Jewish community.

The next day he will travel to Kosice to celebrate a Byzantine mass, meeting with the Roma community and with a group of young people. His last day includes a flight to Sastin for a closing mass, before returning to Rome.

(With AP information)

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