Cardinal Erdo from Hungary is the preferred for conservatives to become the Pope

When more than a million refugees and economic migrants poured into Europe a decade ago, Pope Francis urged sympathy, and in sympathy and support, was washing the feet of 12 asylum seekers at an Italian reception center.

The Cardinal Peter Erdo, the head of the Hungarian bishops, considered a competitor to Francis, a different approach: quoting legal obstacles, and he ordered the doors of the church in Hungary closed to the immigrants, saying: “We will become a human escape if we take refugees.”

He reflected his position after an audience with Francis, and he never adopted the inflammatory correspondence on the migrants of the Popular Prime Minister in Hungary, Victor Urban.

However, the episode terrified the liberals and the conservative happiness by anxiety from the ways to welcome the Pope. This helped to establish the Cardinal Erdo, the head of the Archbishop of the Azergum Budapest, as a record holder of the forces within the Roman Catholic Church, who wants to oppose what they see as Francis.

Multi -language and authority in the ecclesiastical law, Cardinal Erdo has widely wrote about the mysterious aspects of the church’s legal system and devoted a lot of his career to scholarships. Regardless of a two -year working period as an analogy priest after its suitability in 1975, he had no direct direct experience in dealing with the daily problems of the church men.

This can work against it as the Church faces a challenge, which is the opposite of steady erosion towards secularism throughout Europe.

Sestvan Jejeni, president Look at the foundation, Hungarian group runs a Catholic news portal.

He said: “Intellectual, it is a genius who can think about five different things at the same time, but it was not close to people. It is related to them in an official, not emotional way.”

Cardinal Erdo has also developed relationships with many Cardinals who would choose the next Pope. He is a familiar figure among the Catholic leaders in the West, who constitute a strong bloc, although it is divided, in the tour, after he served from 2006 to 2016 as head of the Bishops Conference Council in Europe. He also built bridges with Catholic leaders in Latin America and Africa.

Pope John Paul II of Poland, who became the first intensity of Eastern Europe in 1978, entered the Cardinal Erdou, 72, the priesthood during the Communist rule in his country. It was the time of forced settlements that left a deep sign of his outlook.

Some Cardinal Conservatives support Erdo in believing that he will return to the Church to the time of John Paul and his successor, Pope Benedict XII, and is the theologian of the deep grant and ideological views at one time, and puts an end to Francis’s progressive ideas.

But the Hungarians who worked with him say it is less than the doctrine, which some fans believe. “He is a liberal governor,” said Tipur Gorfelfel, Veglia editor.and The official magazine of the Hungarian Church.

“It is not a real difficult,” he said, “He never criticized Pope Francis.”

Cardinal Erdo supported the Reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, which sought to update the language that the Church uses in services, among other changes.

But he spoke against allowing divorced Catholics to receive the company and against gay couples from priests. In an interview with Robert Mounehan in 2019, editor -in -chief of a magazine inside the Vatican, Cardinal Erdo talked about the need to “protect the flame” from the traditional Christian faith in an increasingly secular world.

However, in Hungary, Cardinal Erdo did not succeed in slowing the increasing secular tide.

In 2002, the Archbishop was appointed by John Paul, and Cardinal Erdo was responsible during the decrease in the number of Hungarians who declared themselves the Roman Catholics. Between 2011 and 2022, according to the results of the official statistics, the number decreased by more than a million to 2.6 million. The Hungarian Church and Mr. Urban, which calls Hungary as a stronghold of Christian values.

Cardinal Erdo in general has avoided interference in the polarized policy of Hungary, but sparked anger in 2023 by attending a picnic held by the high figures in the ruling Fidesz party. Catholics also disturbed the liberal Hungarians by failing to defend Francis against a campaign of abuse by Fidsz during the migration crisis in Europe.

Peter Marqui Zai, a Catholic municipality who led a failed opposition campaign against Mr. Urban in the 2022 elections, described the Cardinal Erdo as “a typical bishop of a typical Communist era in Hungary” who “will not take a position on anything.”

Hungarian Catholics who worked with him says that silence reflected his cautious personality and a desire to avoid giving a government that led to financing for the church.

Cardinal Erdou was initially calm in response to allegations of sexual assault against a Catholic priest made by a man who said in 2003 he was harassed as a child. Cardinal Erdo later commented.

“Unfortunately, silence is the main strategy of the Hungarian Catholic Church” during the era of Cardinal Erdo.

A spokesman for Cardinal Erdo did not respond to a request for comment.

Matti Halmus contributed to Budapest to reports.