Pope Calls for Peaceful Solution in Hungary

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 20, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI appealed for a "just and peaceful" solution to the violent crisis unleashed in Hungary since Monday.

The European country 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.

"With concern I follow the news arriving from Hungary," said the Pope at the end of today's general audience, held in St. Peter's Square and attended by 40,000 people.

"I pray to the Lord that all parties will find a just and peaceful solution," he added.

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.