Pope Francis urged ethnic Hungarians and Romanians to put their troubled past behind them on Saturday as bad weather disrupted his visit to Transylvania, forcing him to be driven for hours on winding mountain roads.

More than 80,000 people gathered on muddy slopes around one of Romania’s most popular Catholic shrines to see the pope on the second day of his trip to the country.

Transylvania, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of the First World War, has a large ethnic Hungarian population and there have been tensions sometimes between ethnic Hungarians and Romanians.

Ethnic Hungarians, many of whom are Catholic in a predominantly Orthodox Christian nation, are the largest minority in Romania, around six per cent of the population.

This has often caused friction between the two European Union neighbours with tensions flaring occasionally over the public use of ethnic minority flags.

In his homily to the rain-soaked crowd, which included Hungarian President Janos Ader, the pope suggested past troubles should not be a barrier to co-existence.

“Complicated and sorrow-filled situations from the past must not be forgotten or denied, yet neither must they be an obstacle or an excuse standing in the way of our desire to live together as brothers and sisters,” he said.

In his homily, Francis said God wanted “that we not let ourselves be robbed of our fraternal love by those voices and hurts that provoke division and

 fragmentation.”

Francis was to have flown by plane from Bucharest to the city of Bacau and then by helicopter to the Sumuleu-Ciuc shrine in this town nestled in the mountains.

But thunderstorms, low clouds and rain forced him to fly to the city of Targu Mures, on the other side of the Carpathian mountains, and be driven for to the site.

From there, Francis was due to continue by helicopter to the city of Iasi to visit Catholics in the remote region of Moldova, close to the border with the former Soviet Union’s satellite Republic of Moldova.

But Vatican officials said he would drive back to Targu Mures and fly by plane to Iasi before returning to Bucharest.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has visited Transylvania many times privately to meet local Hungarian leaders and outline his policy views.

In 2015, Romania rebuked him for posting on his Facebook page symbols it said suggested Budapest favours autonomy for Romanian territory populated mainly by ethnic Hungarians, calling such “revisionism” unacceptable. </s> MIERCUREA-CIUC, Romania (Reuters) - Pope Francis urged ethnic Hungarians and Romanians to put their troubled past behind them on Saturday as bad weather disrupted his visit to Transylvania, forcing him to be driven for hours on winding mountain roads.

More than 80,000 people gathered on muddy slopes around one of Romania’s most popular Catholic shrines to see the pope on the second day of his trip to the country.

Transylvania, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of the First World War, has a large ethnic Hungarian population and there have been tensions sometimes between ethnic Hungarians and Romanians.

Ethnic Hungarians, many of whom are Catholic in a predominantly Orthodox Christian nation, are the largest minority in Romania, around six percent of the population.

This has often caused friction between the two European Union neighbors with tensions flaring occasionally over the public use of ethnic minority flags.

In his homily to the rain-soaked crowd, which included Hungarian President Janos Ader, the pope suggested past troubles should not be a barrier to co-existence.

“Complicated and sorrow-filled situations from the past must not be forgotten or denied, yet neither must they be an obstacle

or an excuse standing in the way of our desire to live together as brothers and sisters,” he said.

Francis was to have flown by plane from Bucharest to the city of Bacau and then by helicopter to the Sumuleu-Ciuc shrine in this town nestled in the mountains.

But thunderstorms, low clouds and rain forced him to fly to the city of Targu Mures, on the other side of the Carpathian mountains, and be driven for to the site.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has visited Transylvania many times privately to meet local Hungarian leaders and outline his policy views.

In 2015, Romania rebuked him for posting on his Facebook page symbols it said suggested Budapest favors autonomy for Romanian territory populated mainly by ethnic Hungarians, calling such “revisionism” unacceptable.

Slideshow (12 Images)

After the weather improved somewhat, Francis flew by helicopter and plane to the city of Iasi to visit Catholics in the remote region of Moldova, close to the border with the former Soviet Union’s satellite Republic of Moldova.

There he addressed tens of thousands of young people, telling them to remain united and look for fresh bonds that can unite people.

He returns to Rome on Sunday night. </s> Pope Francis urged ethnic Hungarians and Romanians to put their troubled past behind them on Saturday as bad weather disrupted his visit to Transylvania, forcing him to be driven for hours on winding mountain roads. </s> BUCHAREST, Romania — Pope Francis, on the last day of his trip to Romania, on Sunday asked for forgiveness on behalf of his church for the suffering endured by the Roma people, saying his heart was “weighed down by the many experiences of discrimination, segregation and mistreatment” they have experienced.

The pope offered the apology at a newly consecrated church in a poor neighborhood of Blaj, a city in Transylvania, where a priest of Roma ethnicity welcomed him “to the periphery of the peripheries.”

“History tells us that Christians too, including Catholics, are not strangers to such evil,” Francis said. “I would like to ask your forgiveness for this. I ask forgiveness — in the name of the church and of the Lord — and I ask forgiveness of you, for all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you.”

This was his first trip to Romania — and the first by a pontiff since John Paul II visited 20 years ago — and Francis sought to mend relations between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. He also took the opportunity to advocate for millions of Romanian emigrants, to hearten the country’s small Catholic population and to again position himself as a counterbalance to the tip toward nationalism around the world.
Pope Francis urges ethnic Hungarians and Romanians to mend their differences toward a peaceful existence in one country.