Pope Benedict XVI calls for peaceful solution in Hungary

(21 Sep 2006) : Pope Benedict XVI appealed for a "just and peaceful" solution to the violent crisis unleashed in Hungary since Monday. At the end of Wednesday’s General Audience, held in St. Peter’s Square and attended by more than 40,000 people, the Pontiff said, “With concern I follow the news arriving from Hungary and I pray to the Lord that all parties will find a just and peaceful solution,” the Pope added. Hungary is experiencing its worst riots since the fall of Communism. More than 200 people, most of them police officers, have been injured. The crisis was sparked by the publication of a recording made after the April elections -- won by the Socialist Party -- in which Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany admits that the government lied for a year and a half about the real conditions of the country. The Holy Father entrusted the country's future to the intercession of Sara Salkahazi, a Hungarian religious beatified last Sunday in Budapest. She was killed for having sheltered Jews during World War II.