POPE PRAYS FOR 2 NATIONS
Pontiff visiting Colombia, sends greetings to Venezuela
BOGOTA at a military airport here and was greeted by President Juan Manuel Santos and a crowd waving white handkerchiefs.
Children in white outfits and red neckerchiefs performed a local cumbia dance as Francis greeted the crowd, including civilians and army veterans injured in the conflict.
Smiling, he climbed aboard a white Popemobile which took him through the city centre amid deafening cheers from admirers lining the route to the papal mission, the Nunciatura.
There he recited a Hail Mary and a blessing to assembled youths, who responded with a rap and breakdancing.
He donned a white wool poncho they gave him as a present.
Francis had called ahead of his trip for a “stable and lasting peace” in Colombia.
On arrival, he praised local people for their “heroism”.
“Continue on the path that you have been brave enough to start, which is called heroism,” he told the young people.
“Don’t let yourselves be beaten, don’t let yourselves be fooled. Do not lose joy. Do not lose hope.”
Francis’s trip follows the disarmament of the country’s biggest rebel force, the FARC, and a ceasefire by the last remaining guerilla force, the ELN.
But Francis’s first statements after starting the trip were about Venezuela, where a crisis had caused food shortages, deadly unrest and calls for President Nicolas Maduro to quit.
Francis sent a telegram with “cordial greetings” to Maduro and the Venezuelan people, “praying that all in the nation may promote paths of solidarity, justice and concord”. AFP