Colombia’s Catholic bishops urged the government and armed rebels to commit to an indefinite cease-fire while a new peace deal is negotiated after voters rejected an agreement that would have formally ended the Western Hemisphere’s longest-running war. Following a meeting on Oct. 13-14, the bishops’ conference said in a letter that it wanted to convey a sense of hope and encouragement to the country as it considers the next steps to establishing lasting peace. “We hear the cries and we align ourselves with the hopes of the victims, the peasants, the different ethnic groups, all of those who have suffered the consequences of the conflict in various regions of the country,” said the letter, signed by Archbishop Luis Castro Quiroga of Tunja, president of the bishops’ conference. “Interpreting the feeling of the Colombian people, we ask the government and the FARC to indefinitely keep the cessation of hostilities,” the letter said, referring to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia by its Spanish acronym, FARC.
Continue Cease-Fire
A woman holding a candle and images of disappeared victims takes part in a rally for peace Oct. 7 in Medellin, Colombia. Colombia's Catholic bishops urged the government and armed rebels to commit to an indefinite cease-fire while a new peace deal is negotiated. (CNS photo/Luis Eduardo Noriega A., EPA)
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Around the affluent world, new hostility, resentment and anxiety has been directed at immigrant populations that are emerging as preferred scapegoats for all manner of political and socio-economic shortcomings.
“Each day is becoming more difficult, but we do not surrender,” Father Igor Boyko, 48, the rector of the Greek Catholic seminary in Lviv, told Gerard O’Connell. “To surrender means we are finished.”
Many have questioned how so many Latinos could support a candidate like DonaldTrump, who promised restrictive immigration policies. “And the answer is that, of course, Latinos are complicated people.”
Catholic voters were a crucial part of Donald J. Trump’s re-election as president. But did misogyny and a resistance to women in power cause Catholic voters to disregard the common good?