Pope Francis Visits Hungary: First Pope In 25 Years, Awaited By 'Bite Of Heaven'

JAKARTA - This weekend Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Hungary to participate in the world Catholic event, which will be a historic visit as well as a memorable moment.

Pope Francis is due to arrive in Hungary this Sunday, the first papal trip to the country since Pope John Paul II visited in 1996.

Pope Francis will celebrate Holy Mass for the close of the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress, a one-week event held every four years that brings together Catholics from around the world, citing Euronews September 10.

The mass is expected to draw as many as 100.000 people to the Hungarian capital, despite concerns over a new spike in COVID-19 cases. Congressional organizers have announced that events will be exempt from restrictions on mass gatherings and that vaccination certificates, masks, or social distancing will not be required.

Before delivering the closing Mass, Pope Francis will meet briefly with President Janos Ader and right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Known for his hard-line stance on immigration, Orban has often described his government as a defender of Europe's 'Christian civilization', a bulwark against migration from Muslim-majority countries.

However, some of Orban's policies contradict the views held by Pope Francis. In 2015, Orban rejected a proposal to host refugees from the Middle East and Africa who arrived in Europe during that year's migration crisis. His government erected a fence along its southern border, to keep asylum seekers out.

Instead, Pope Francis urged European Catholics at the time to welcome refugees, and in a more recent statement, said the approach to migrants must "welcome, protect, promote and integrate".

Kue Khusus

Interestingly, ahead of Pope Francis' visit, confectioner Zsolt Karl has made a special cake he calls the 'Bite of Heaven', made using dried fruits mentioned in the Bible. He hopes Pope Francis will sample his cakes during his visit to the country.

Karl, who runs his pastry shop in the small town of Dunaharaszti, south of Budapest, won the national cake competition, which he served for the first time at the Eucharistic Congress in Budapest this week.

"I cook sugar syrup with cinnamon and honey, and I put diced dried fruit in it", he said, citing Reuters September 9.

"We experimented with the proportions of dried fruit so that when a person eats a cake, he feels a different taste in every 5-10 seconds", he explained.

Under contest conditions, the cake had to be simple, durable without refrigeration, and made using biblical ingredients such as figs, dates, apricots, prunes, and honey.

Karl's cake, which is similar to the typical Hungarian 'beigli', a roll usually stuffed with poppy seeds or walnuts and traditionally made for Christmas, filled with dried figs, prunes, dates, and apricots, as well as candied cherries, peeled sweet oranges and almonds roast.

"I really hope the Pope will taste our cake", concluded Karl hopefully.