Pope in Colombia: No Special Meeting with Venezuela's Bishops

Vatican spokesman Burke: Possibly an informal conversation with guerrilla group ELN, who will ask the Pope for forgiveness for the murder of Bishop Jaramillo.

Vatican City-Bogota (kath.net/KAT) Vatican spokesman Greg Burke has confirmed a meeting with the bishops of Venezuela in Pope Francis' official visit program to Colombia. There is also no meeting with the former guerrilla group FARC and other opposition groups such as the ELN. Informal encounters and conversations with Venezuelan bishops during the trip are, however, probable. In addition, two cardinals of the crisis state are coming to Bogota airport to receive the Pope.

During his travels to Colombia, Pope Francis is concerned primarily with pastoral questions, although the peace process will also play an important role, said Burke. Pope Francis has visited Colombia twice during his time as a bishop, as well as twice as a priest in the 1970s; he had journeyed to the cities of Bogota, Medellin, and La Ceja.

The opening day (7 September) in Bogota will be entitled, "Handicrafts of Peace, Promoter of Life". On the 8th of September in the village of Villavicencio "Reconciliation with God, with the Colombians and with nature" will be in the foreground. In Medellin (September 9), the theme of "Christian life as a reunion", in Cartagena (September 10) is finally about human dignity and human rights.

Further details of the trip were revealed by the Vatican: The outward flight is handled via the airline Alitalia, the return flight with the Colombian Avianca.

Whether a meeting with the guerrillas does not actually take place during the Colombian trip is still questionable, despite Vatican denials. On Friday, representatives of the rebel group ELN declared that they were seeking to meet with the Pope to officially ask forgiveness for their "Mistake" of the assassination of Bishop Jesus Emilio Jaramillo Monsalve, said the Colombian radio station RCN radio on its website.

Bishop Jaramillo (1916-1989) was regarded as an opponent of the left-wing ELN guerrillas in the 1980s with his initiatives for small-scale farmers and indigenous peoples in his diocese, Arauca, against whose violence he also expressed public disapproval. The militia then murdered the then 73-year-old bishop on 2 October 1989. Pope Francis will beatify the "Prophet and Martyr of Peace," which is the inscription on Jaramillo's gravestone, on September 8th in Villavicencio. On the same day there will also be a reconciliation gesture with victims of violence in Colombia.

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com AMDG