Deputy PM: Day of Pope Francis's funeral will be a national day of mourning
Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén announced on Monday that the government intends to declare the day of Pope Francis's funeral a national day of mourning.
The day of mourning will 'express the nation's gratitude for the Holy Father and the nation's grief', the deputy prime minister said.
Deputy PM Semjén, who also leads the co-ruling Christian Democrats, said he was 'shocked to learn of the news of the Holy Father's death'.
He said 'all Hungarians' were grateful to the pope, who called on Hungarians three times by visiting the 'national shrine of Csiksomlyo' during his visit to Transylvania before attending the Eucharistic Congress in Budapest and then making an apostolic visit to Hungary.
Deputy PM Semjén said the Holy Father 'was rightly called a man of peace', adding that the pope supported peace 'in every way', arguing that diplomacy rather than weapons should take hold of events.
The deputy PM also said the pope and the Hungarian people had a special relationship and 'a deep connection'.
Having worked among Hungarian nuns in Argentina, whenever he met a Hungarian, the pontiff would always say 'God bless you!' in Hungarian, Semjén noted.
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