Szeklerland, at the south-easternmost part of historical Transylvania, an ethnic Hungarian enclave in the middle of Romania, lies on the borderline between cultures, on the crossroads of religious denominations where western Christianity meets eastern Orthodox Christianity. Șumuleu Ciuc (Csíksomlyó in Hungarian) is a major historical Roman Catholic – Marian – pilgrimage site of Szeklerland, which has grown into a national holy site of Hungarians from all over the world. This place was included into the official itinerary of Pope Francis’ 2019 visit in Romania. The aim of this article – as part of our interdisciplinary research project titled “Videmus Papam. Social, Economic Aspects of Pope Francis’ 2019 Visit to Șumuleu Ciuc in Szeklerland’s Regional and Wider Contexts” identifying, mapping, describing, and analyzing the socio-religious, socio-demographic, economic-touristic, and media-representation aspects of the papal visit – is to investigate the echoes of the papal visit, with special attention to the personality and the role of Pope Francis, the ethnic identity of Szekler-Hungarians, the significance of the Marian pilgrimage site, the historical importance of the special occasion, the inter-ethnic relations between majority Romanians and minority Hungarians, the role of the church in religious and secular discourses. The investigation focuses, based on key terms, om the public discourses around the papal visit unfolding from the digital media contents, opinions, public comments appearing in social media, but the data obtained from the online questionnaires and interviews performed during the research project offer important insights as well. The texts and auxiliary materials (photos, videos) have been processed through qualitative discourse analysis methods – corroborated with the work and results of the members of the research team.
Keywords: Papal visit, Csíksomlyó/Șumuleu Ciuc, social media deliberations, pope-criticism, pope-enthusiasm, inter-ethnic relations, inter-religious relations
