Aid to the Church in Need: Columbia: People still suffering, despite liberation of Betancourt

Columbia: People still suffering, despite liberation of Betancourt

Posted by ACN News on 4/9/2008, 9:56 am
Board Administrator

ACN News 04.09.2008

Colombia: People still suffering, despite liberation of Betancourt, says bishop

While the freeing of Ingrid Betancourt, who was received on Monday by Pope Benedict XVI, is a cause for rejoicing and hope, everyday life in Colombia is nonetheless still marked by violence. This was the warning given recently by Bishop Pablo Salas of Espinal, who was speaking to the the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Given this climate of violence, he continued, people are living in constant fear and cannot live a normal life. In addition to the FARC terrorist organisation, well-known in the West, there are other left-wing and right-wing extremist armed groups that are bringing terror, violence and death on the people, 51-year-old Bishop Salas told ACN. Almost every Colombian citizen had at least one family member who had experienced violence, while in his own diocese the murdered priests and the churches destroyed by gas bombs bore tragic witness to this suffering, he said. Many people had felt compelled to emigrate as a result.

A child soldier belonging to one of the rebel groups in San Jose del Guaviare diocese

Alongside the fight against violence, he believes, the political priority should be a commitment to combat social injustice and the poverty resulting from it. Too many people still have not enough land, or no resources to be able to live from it. In his diocese there are no proper roads, and the campesinos have to work very hard, often without any implements for gathering the harvest or carts for transporting it, or even roads for the carts to drive on. This causes great discouragement to the peasant farmers and makes them extremely angry. In fact, their situation has actually deteriorated still further in recent years, the bishop told ACN.

The task of the Church, as he sees it, is to be an instrument of peace and a prophetic voice speaking for justice and truth -- a voice that speaks above all for the poor and suffering. The peace in Colombia must not be the peace of the grave, but rather a living peace, in which all sides must play their part. But while the message of the Church is indeed respected, it is sadly too little heeded, Bishop Salas complained.

A Palm Sunday procession in the Diocese of San Jose del Guaviare

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Sydney office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org