Pope Francis arrived in Hungary on his first overseas trip since undergoing bowel surgery in July, kicking off a four-day pilgrimage with an awkward meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who represents the type of populist and nationalist leader whom François frequently criticizes.

Mr Orban, whose anti-migration policies clash with Francis’ call to welcome refugees, greeted the Argentine Pope at the Museum of Fine Arts and the two attended a private meeting which also attended the Hungarian President and Vatican officials.

Hungary’s tough stance on migration was apparently not raised in Sunday’s discussion.

“I asked Pope Francis not to let Christian Hungary perish,” Orban wrote on Facebook.

Video footage of the meeting showed Francis shaking hands with President Janos Ader, Mr Orban and Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen and smiling, then the Hungarian and Vatican sides sitting separately in a cavernous room in the museum.

“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,” said a statement from the Vatican.

Francis only spends seven hours in Budapest before leaving on Sunday afternoon for a four-day tour of neighboring Slovakia.

The unbalanced itinerary suggested that Francis wanted to avoid giving Orban the political push that comes with welcoming a pope for a proper state visit ahead of next spring’s elections.

Vatican and Hungarian officials insisted that Francis is not snubbing Hungary, noting that the Hungarian Church and State did not invite him to close an international conference on the Eucharist until Sunday.

Mr. Orban has often described his government as a defender of Christian civilization in Europe and a bulwark against migration from predominantly Muslim countries.

Francois expressed his solidarity with migrants and refugees and criticized what he called “national populism” put forward by governments like Hungary’s.

He urged governments to welcome and integrate as many migrants as possible.

Few in the crowd were wearing masks and no vaccination test or certificate was required to enter.

Matyas Mezosi, a Hungarian Catholic who arrived early at the mass site, was jubilant that the Pope had come so soon after his operation; The 84-year-old pope underwent a 33-centimeter (13-inch) colon removal in early July.

“It’s great to see him recovering from this operation,” Mezosi said.

“The fact that he is here in Hungary today means that he is sacrificing himself to be with us and that he feels good now.”

During the flight from Rome, François indeed seemed in good shape: he stayed so long greeting the journalists in the back of the plane that an assistant had to tell him to return to his seat because it was time to land. .

Francis said he was happy to resume his overseas trips after the coronavirus lull and then his own postoperative recovery.

But later that morning, he apologized to his audience of Christian and Jewish leaders by delivering his seated speech, joking that “I’m not 15 anymore.”

In his remarks, Francois warned of a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe, saying it is a “fuse that must not be allowed to burn”.

The Argentine Pope called on Christians, Jews and people of other faiths to commit to promoting greater brotherhood “so that the outbursts of hatred that would destroy this brotherhood never prevail.”

Hungary’s large Jewish population was devastated in the closing months of World War II, with more than 550,000 Jewish deaths.

The vast majority were deported within two months in 1944 with the help of the fascist Hungarian Arrow Cross Party, and most were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland.

The Hungarian government led by Mr. Orban has been accused of trafficking in veiled anti-Semitic stereotypes, largely targeting Hungarian-born American financier and philanthropist George Soros, whom the government frequently accuses of interfering in the country’s internal affairs.

About 39% of Hungarians declared themselves Catholic in a 2011 census, while 13% declared themselves Protestant, either Lutheran or Calvinist, a Protestant branch to which Mr. Orban is affiliated.

A tiny fraction of the population is Jewish.

Yet religious engagement in Hungary lags behind many of its neighbors.

According to a 2018 survey by the Pew Research Center, only 14% of Hungarians said religion was an important part of their life, and 17% said they attended religious services at least once a month.

In addition, around 3,000 places of worship have been built or restored with public funds since 2010, as part of an effort by Mr. Orban’s government to advance what he calls “Christian democracy” as an alternative. to liberal governance of which he is a frequent critic.