Just over a week before Christmas, Benedict XVI wanted to turn his thoughts and prayers to Colombia and especially - given the new guerilla offensives by FARC - to the many people taken hostage by kidnappers, to the military, and to the police.
The Pope assures them that “the Church will continue to raise its fervent supplication to God, and to work in favor of their freedom.”
Vatican Radio mentions a telegram signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone addressed to the Secretary General of the Colombian Episcopate, Monsignor Juan Vicente Cordoba, in which the Pope asks for “the conversion of kidnappers and the opening of paths of dialogue so that we can come to the peace that the Colombian people long for.”
The Pontiff also expresses to all the families of the hostages “his nearness in the face of the distress caused by this unjust suffering, which no authentic political or social justice can justify.”
In response to the Pope's message, the Colombian bishops have asked all the faithful and people of good will to dedicate their Christmas Novena to the freeing of the hostages.