Eastern Europe is a thorn in the side of Francis’s pontificate, and there are many varied elements that prove it. In the synod on the family, the bishops of eastern Europe were among the most resolute defenders of tradition, starting with the relator general of the first session, Hungarian Cardinal Péter Erdõ, author among other things of a sensational public condemnation of the violations committed by the reformist faction, which clearly had the pope’s support. After the synod, eastern Europe the source of the most restrictive interpretations of the papal document “Amoris Laetitia.”