Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Hungary on April 28-30 has brought hope to the country’s LGBT community, which has faced an intensifying anti-LGBT campaign by the conservative government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban. During his visit, Pope Francis is set to meet with Hungary’s political leaders, including Orban, as well as diplomats, priests, poor people, and refugees.
In recent years, Orban has targeted gender issues and what he calls “LGBT propaganda” in his campaign to promote social policies that he says safeguard Christian values against Western liberalism. The 2021 law passed by the Orban government banning the use of materials seen as promoting homosexuality and gender change in schools was criticized by human rights groups as anti-LGBT discrimination and labeled a “disgrace” by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The European Commission referred Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union in mid-2022 over this issue.
Amid this backdrop, the Pope’s visit has been welcomed by Akos Marco Modolo, a human rights and LGBT activist who is gay and has been a practicing Catholic all his life. Modolo hopes that the Pope’s tolerant approach to LGBT and marginalized people will help bridge the rift caused by what he called the government’s anti-LGBT “hate campaign”.
Many LGBT people who are also Christian believers in Hungary feel shame about their identity and believe that “God does not love them”, said Modolo, who plans to attend the papal Mass on April 30. However, he personally has always felt that God loves him and has no problem with him being gay. His faith in God has helped him overcome hardships when he felt lonely in his former conservative Catholic community in the small farming town of Mezobereny where he grew up.
Despite the government’s rejection of “aggressive LGBTQ propaganda” and its message of protecting children at all costs, a 2021 survey by the Zavecz Research institute found that 56% of Hungarians were accepting of homosexuality. The Pope has repeatedly said that LGBT people must be welcomed by the Roman Catholic Church, although the Church’s catechism, or book of teachings, says that same-sex attraction is not a sin though homosexual acts are.
The visit of Pope Francis to Hungary is eagerly anticipated by LGBT advocates in the country. They hope that his message of love, compassion, and inclusion will help bridge the divide caused by the government’s anti-LGBT campaign and promote greater acceptance of the LGBT community in Hungary.