Pope in Colombia will seek healing
Francis expected to address economic, social justice issues.
Pope Francis flew to Colombia on Wednesday to try to help heal the wounds of Latin America’s longest-running armed conflict, bolstered by a new cease-fire with a holdout rebel group but aware of the fragility of the country’s peace process.
During his deeply symbolic five-day visit, Francis is expected to press Colom- bian leaders to address the social and economic dispar- ities that fueled five decades of armed rebellion, while at the same time he encourages ordinary Colombians to bal- ance their need for justice with forgiveness.
In a video message on the eve of his departure, Francis urged all Colombians to take a “first step” and reach out to one another for the sake of peace and the future.
“Peace is what Colombia has been looking for and working for for such a long time,” he said, “a stable and lasting peace, so that we can see one another and treat one another as brothers, not as enemies.”
Arriving at Bogota’s mili- tary air base on a flight from Rome, Francis was greeted by President Juan Manuel Santos and Colombia’s national orchestra playing classics by Vivaldi and Beethoven as well as traditional cumbia music.
A year after the Colom- bian government signed the peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the nation re m ains bitterly divided over the terms of the deal even as guerrillas have laid down their arms and begun returning to civilian life. Even the Catholic Church hierarchy, which was instrumental in facilitating the peace talks and is now spearheading the process of reconciliation, was divided over what many Colombians saw as the overly generous terms offered to rebels behind atrocities.
Former President Alvaro Uribe, a fierce opponent of the peace deal, wrote a letter to the pope Tuesday expressing concern that the deal with the rebels had fueled a rise in drug trafficking and created economic uncertainties with the potential to destroy Colombia’s social fabric.
Meanwhile, Dairo Usuga, a drug fugitive and target of a $5 million manhunt by U.S. officials, appealed to the pope to pray that he and his fellow combatants be allowed to lay down their weapons as part of the peace process — a proposal the government has rejected out of hand.