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(Vatican Radio) Hungary says it will soon open a third transit zone on its border with Serbia where refugees can apply for asylum amid concerns about a new influx of people fleeing war and poverty. The announcement came after the United Nations refugee agency urged the two countries to find a human solution to the situation of refugees camping in dire conditions at the border between the two countries.

Listen to Stefan Bos' report:

The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said Hungary and Serbia should care for the hundreds of refugees who are stuck at the border, waiting to enter the European Union. The UNHCR Representative in Serbia, Hans Schodder, visited the small tent city Friday that has formed on the Serbian side of the razor-wire fence Hungary put up last year to keep out migrants.

He expressed concern that the estimated 300 people are camping in an area without toilets and running water, relying on aid groups for food and water. Schodder declined to compare the situation to the now-dismantled camp at the Greece-Macedonia border where thousands were stranded for months after the Balkan route effectively closed in March.

Hungarian authorities have let through about 20 people a day, mostly families with small children. However György Bakondi, the homeland security adviser to anti-migration Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, told reporters that a new transit zone is planned to be set up in the village of Asotthalom. "The number of migrants crossing the border illegally is growing.

The number of those waiting near the border is also increasing. Therefore we strengthen the fence near the village of Asotthalom..." he said. He added that "at the same time we are building a new transit zone there."

MAYOR NOT HAPPY

Yet Asotthalom Mayor László Toroczkai , of the far-right Jobbik party, said in a reaction that he was not happy about the plan although he supports government efforts to "stop the illegal migrants."

On the YouTube website he has placed a Hollywood-style video clip warning migrants not to enter Hungary illegally. "We welcome everyone who respects our laws and enters our country through our international border crossing point," he says in the clip, released last year. "But those who try to cross our border illegally may easily end up in prison." Soon viewers hear exciting music while seeing a fast driving car of the local rangers backed by a motor driver, a police helicopter and men on horses rushing towards a field where the mayor, wearing sun  glasses, appears in front of angry looking men in uniforms. 

Yet despite these efforts, Hungarian authorities have acknowledged that some 11,000 migrants have been detained for entering Hungary illegally this year alone, despite razor wire fences. And Hundreds of migrants are already waiting at two border transit zones - at Roszke and Kelebia - as Hungary is registering just 20 to 30 asylum-seekers a day at the makeshift registry points there.

The transit zones were set up late last year after Hungary greatly stemmed the flow of migrants toward Western Europe with the razor-wire fences on its borders with Serbia and Croatia.

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday received some four hundred children of different ethnicities, cultures and religions – many of them migrants and refugees – who had traveled to Rome from Calabria in southern Italy aboard the “Children’s Train” – the Treno dei Bambini – an annual initiative of the Pontifical Council for Culture, which this year has as its theme, “Carried by waves”: a theme that is designed at once to invoke the often deadly danger of migration, and the hope in the promise of a better future that drives people – along with the threat of torture, slavery and death – to flee their homelands and seek a better life on strange and distant shores.

Click below to hear our full report

The children arrived Saturday at St. Peter’s railway station in the Vatican: their conveyance brining also the pain of the experience of its young passengers – their undeniable suffering, weaved together with the care and affection offered the children by the John XXIII Association, and the work of the “Quattrocanti” Children’s Orchestra of Palermo (in which boys and girls of eight different ethnicities are involved), as well as the initiative of Mary Salvia, principal of a school in Vibo Marina, who brought to Pope Francis the money from her school’s collection for the children of Lesbos and a letter signed by her pupils, which Cardinal Ravasi read to the Pope. “We children promise that we will welcome anyone who arrives in our country: we shall never consider anyone who has a different skin color, or who speaks a different language, or who professes a different religion from ours, a dangerous enemy.”

In an unscripted exchange with the young travelers, Pope Francis focused on the human cost of indifference to the plight of migrants, recounting the story and sharing the words of a rescue worker who brought the Holy Father the life vest of a young migrant who drowned at sea. “He brought me this jacket,” said Pope Francis, “and with tears in his eyes he said to me, ‘Father, I couldn’t do it – there was a little girl on the waves, and I did all I could, but I couldn’t save her: only her life vest was left.’” Then, indicating the Jacket, the Holy Father said, “I do not [tell you this because I] want you to be sad, but [because] you are brave and you [should] know the truth: they are in danger –  many boys and girls, small children, men, women – they are in danger,” he said. “Let us think of this little girl: what was her name? I do not know: a little girl with no name. Each of you give her the name you would like, each in his heart. She is in heaven, she is looking on us.”

A teachable moment among many afforded by the occasion, as was the moment in which one of the Pope’s young visitors asked him what it means “to be Pope”: The Holy Father replied, “[to do] the good that I can do.” He went on to say, “I feel that Jesus called me to this: Jesus wanted me to be a Christian, and a Christian must do [the good he can]; and Jesus also wanted me to be a priest, and a bishop – and a priest and a bishop must do [the good they can]; I feel that Jesus is calling me to do this – that’s what I feel,” he said.

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(Vatican Radio) This weekend here in Rome, the Church is marking the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in a special way with the Jubilee of Deacons. As their very title suggests – taken as it is from the Greek word for “servant”, diakonos – Deacons are ordained to a ministry of service in the Church: they proclaim the Good News liturgically, they assist priests at the Altar, and they preach to the faithful on matters pertaining to authentic Christian living. Deacons also bring the Blessed Sacrament to the sick in hospital and to the housebound: they visit prisoners, offering them both companionship and counsel; they baptize, receive the marriage vows of couples entering Holy Matrimony, and they pray for the dead.

Two Deacons from the United States, the Rev. Messrs. Doug Breckenridge and Greg Kandra, visited Vatican Radio during the course of their pilgrimage to celebrate the Jubilee of Deacons, and spoke with us about the joys and challenges of their vocation, especially in the present generation of the Church in the West, which recovered the Permanent Diaconate as a distinct ministry during and after the II Vatican Ecumenical Council.

Click below to hear our extended conversation Deacon Greg Kandra and Deacon Doug Breckenridge

“I think – and I think many people would agree with this – it is one of the great success stories of Vatican II,” said Deacon Kandra (of the Diocese of Brooklyn, NY, who, in “civilian” life, was a producer for CBS News, and who now works closely with the Catholic Near East Welfare Association and blogs at Aleteia). “In my diocese in particular,” added Deacon Breckenridge  (of the Diocese of Dallas, Tx., who made his career in the banking and finance industry, and who has been committed for several years to working with the Children's Medical Center), “there are three [Diaconate formation] classes going at once: so, every two years, they start a new class of thirty to forty men,” who undertake the roughly six-year program of formation for the Diaconate, which often takes place on nights and weekends over that six-year period.

Both Deacon Kandra and Deacon Breckenridge are married – and while there is no requirement that men in the Permanent Diaconate be married, the vast majority of men who pursue their studies to the end and accept Ordination are married when they do. “My wife was very supportive,” explained Deacon Kandra, “she and I prayed together when I was discerning this – in early 2002 – and she said, ‘I just feel this is something you are supposed to do,’ and I said, ‘I do too.’.”

Deacon Breckenridge explained that Deacons’ wives do not only play a central role in discernment, but also in ministry. “A wife can choose to have her husband taken out of formation at any time, without him knowing that his wife has asked,” said Deacon Breckenridge. He went on to say that his ministry has informed his married life. “It has deepened our relationship,” he said, “we both are more active in the Church,” since he was ordained, and Mrs. Breckenridge also contributes to her husband’s service specifically as a Deacon. “She is my best editor for my homilies,” he explained.

“We also help in all areas of marriage ministry,” Deacon Breckenridge continued, “I think it is one thing that, as a married couple, we bring,” i.e. their experience of married life, which they are happy to share with couples seeking the Sacrament of Matrimony from the Church.

“Being the wife of a Deacon is almost a vocation unto itself,” offered Deacon Kandra. “My wife is a great collaborator – a great prayer warrior,” he continued, “she makes it possible for me to do what I do.”

Deacon Kandra concluded the conversation with high praise for the Diaconate as a calling of service that is one of constant surprise and discovery. “I always say it was the second-best decision I ever made: the first one being to marry my wife,” he said. “It is such an adventure, and it is such a joy: I wake up some days and I can’t believe I get to do what I do.”

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(Vatican Radio) Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia's military will target Romania and Poland in response to a US-built missile defense system in the region. He made the comments during his two-day trip to Greece which ended Saturday with a visit to a Russian monastery. 

Listen to Stefan Bos' report:

Putin used his first visit to a European Union country this year to condemn western policies towards Moscow, describing a newly expanded American missile defense system as a threat to his country's security - and vowing to retaliate.

Standing next to Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras, the Russian leader said Moscow had in his words "no choice" but to target Romania because it
recently opened a missile defense base as part of the system, and Poland, which wants to do so within two years.

Putin warned especially citizens in Romania that they will face uncertain times because of the missile shield, which will be operated by the NATO military alliance. "Rockets within a 500 kilometer range have been positioned in Romania now. Rockets with a 1,000 kilometer range are on the way. But what's even worse, these rockets can easily be replaced at any moment with long range rockets that can travel 2,400 kilometers and no one will notice, even the Romanians," he said.

"This is a huge danger to us and we have will to react immediately. Those parts of Romania that didn't know what it is like to be in the
crosshairs, will have to face our countermeasures to ensure our safety."  

PURELY DEFENSIVE?

NATO claims the system is purely defensive and a response to a growing capability of ballistic missiles globally, including from countries such as
Iran and North Korea. But Moscow disagrees. 

President Putin also said that the United States unilaterally withdrew from a crucial missile defence treaty, and he accused Washington
of undermining the foundations of international security.

Amidst the tensions, Athens is keen to maintain its traditionally close ties with post-Soviet Russia, despite supporting EU sanctions against Moscow
over its role in the conflict in Ukraine. Greek Prime Minister Tsipras called "improving relations with Russia on multiple levels a strategic choice."

Yet, complicating that effort is Greece's participation in a natural gas pipeline project designed to limit Russia's regional energy dominance.

Putin made clear he regrets that Russia was forced to suspend its South Stream pipeline project which was to transport Russian natural gas through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and through Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia and further to Austria. 

PRESSURING BULGARIA

He suggested that the US and the EU's executive, the European Commission pressured countries such as Bulgaria to halt its work on the project, during the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War.

Putin traveled to Greece with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and top executives from state oil and natural gas companies. He wrapped up his trip on a more spiritual note. On Saturday the Russian leader visited the all-male monastic community of Mount Athos.

Accompanied by the head of Russia's Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, he joined celebrations for the 1,000th anniversary of the Russian presence at the ancient site.

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Vatican City, May 28, 2016 / 06:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday, Pope Francis met with the president of the Republic of Singapore, marking 35 years of diplomatic relations between the Southeast Asian country and the Holy See, and the first ever state visit by a Singaporean president to a Pope.

During the visit, President Tony Tan Keng Yam and the pontiff addressed topics relating to “the importance of interreligious and intercultural dialogue for the promotion of human rights, stability, justice and peace in south-east Asia,” according to a statement by the Holy See press office.

The “cordial discussion” also addressed the “good relations between the Holy See and Singapore,” and the “collaboration between the Church and the State, especially in the educational and social fields,” the statement continues.

After the meeting, Pope Francis gave President Tan a medal of peace, explaining how government is about bringing people together.

The Pope then presented a copy of his encyclical Laudato, Si' to the president, who in turn thanked the pontiff for speaking out about climate change, saying: “it is a big problem.”

The president for his part gave the pontiff an etching of Singapore's Gardens by the Bay nature park, and a book of about the country's exotic flowers.

President Tan also met with the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, along with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for Relations with States.

The May 28 meeting at the Vatican comes at the final leg of the president's week-long State Visit, during which he stopped in Rome and Venice.

Diplomatic relations between Singapore and the Holy See officially began June 24, 1981 under the pontificate of St. John Paul II.

Since 1965, Singapore has also had relations with Italy, one of the first countries to recognize its status of independence.

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