Last week, Pope Francis visited Hungary and Slovakia—two countries with about 1,000 years of Christian history. But today, that history is being re-interpreted for political ends, as nationalist or populist leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban use Christian identity as an argument for keeping new migrants out.

On this bonus episode of “Inside the Vatican,” Slovakian religion historian Agata Sustova Drelova joins host Colleen Dulle for a closer look at Pope Francis’ interpretation of the countries’ religious history, reframing it as a history of openness, stretching all the way back to Sts. Cyril and Methodius, who first evangelized the area in the ninth century.

Agata and Colleen also discuss the pope’s visit to Slovakia’s largest Roma settlement and why Agata believes this papal visit was “a crash course in synodality.”

Links from the show:

Pope Francis wants a better future for Slovakia’s Roma communities. Roma women are making it happen.

Pope Francis to populist leaders: Do not use the cross for political purposes
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