Pope at Colombia prayer meeting for reconciliation
weeps with victims
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| Pope Francis greets a wounded veteran in Villavicencio, Colombia.- AP |
(Vatican Radio) White, the colour of peace, was worn on
Friday by everyone present at the Prayer
Meeting for National Reconciliation in the Colombian town of
Villavicencio.
A disfigured, mutilated and burnt black Christ hung over the
gathering, a stark reminder of the evil of violence and death, that as Pope
Francis said, breeds more violence and death in an endless cycle of
destruction unless that chain is broken by the power of forgiveness and
reconciliation.
He listened intently to the personal
testimonies of victims and perpetrators of violence, their terrible
stories of suffering and abuse acting as healing memories in the effort to
overcome and unite for the good of the nation and all of its children.
And then Francis told them that he wasn’t at the meeting in
Villavicencio to tell them what to do, but rather to weep with them and embrace
them as they help their country take the first, difficult but fundamental steps
towards peace.
He thanked Luz for the gift of her crutch, a symbol – he said
– of the more important crutch we all need which is love and forgiveness.
He bowed to Pastora’s powerful and precious witness as she
spoke of how the loss of two children to the conflict did not prevent her from
conquering hatred and the desire for vengeance.
He listened to the stories of former guerrillas Deisy and
Juan Carlos thanking them for helping us understand that they too are victims
and that there is hope also for those who did wrong.
The crowd that lined the streets as Pope Francis was driven
to pray and pay tribute to a memorial to the victims of the Colombian conflict
also wore white.
A black stone on the memorial monument carries the number of
those who died, ‘disappeared’ or were displaced: it reads 8 million four
hundred and seventy two thousand one hundred and forty three.
As Pope Francis said right at the beginning of this
heart-wrenching but incredibly uplifting afternoon, he had been especially
looking forward to it.
It’s no secret he has come to Colombia as a pilgrim of peace
and hopefully this simple but powerful time together will be forceful enough to
create a deep and definitive fracture in that deadly cycle of violence that can
only lead to more division and grief..
In Colombia with Pope Francis, I'm Linda Bordoni
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