300 Hungarians pilgrims in Rome for Pope John Paul s beatification

Rome, April 30 (MTI) - A group of 300 Hungarian pilgrims have arrived in Rome to attend the beatification ceremony of late John Pope John Paul II in Vatican City on Sunday, an organiser of the group s trip told MTI on Saturday.

    Members of the group, the youngest aged 14 and the oldest 92, will be at the site at Saint Peter s Square already at 5am and will pay tribute to the late Pontiff after the ceremony, said Gyula Madari, director of the Makrovilag travel agency.

    "Pope John Paul II was not simply an icon but a charismatic personality to whom young and old both felt attached," Istvan Seregely, the retired archbishop of Eger leading the Hungarian pilgrim group, told MTI.

    "He knew how to build a relationship with all the peoples and cultures of the world, which explains why the whole world has moved to be here for his beatification ceremony in Rome," said Seregely, who had met John Paul II on several occasions.

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will also attend the ceremony, leading a delegation of government representatives, Orban s spokesman told MTI earlier in the day.

      Pope John Paul II paid an official visit to Hungary in 1991 and in 1996.