Hundreds of armed conflict victims will be attending mass with Pope Francis while the Catholic Church leader visits the central Colombian city of Villavicencio on Friday.
Luis Emil Sanabria of NGO Redepaz told RCN Radio that the victims will be traveling in buses from the capital Bogota to the capital of the Meta province to take part in the religious ceremony.
Hundred of the victims will meet the pope personally and, according to Sanabria, will ask the church leader for continued support for the country’s ongoing efforts to find peace and specifically the reparation of the approximately 8 million victims of the 53-year-long armed conflict.
In response to the pope’s official theme of his trip, “Taking the first step,” victims have begun their own campaign, called “Millions of steps for peace,” the social leader told the radio station.
The message will have three components, first the consolidation of peace with the FARC and that what has been agreed is complied with. The second element is the entire issue of participation and the ceasefire with the ELN and the third concerns the life of social leaders who are being assassinated.
Luis Emil Sanabria
Victims from the western hamlet of Bojaya, where the FARC is in the process of repairing a massacre, will be traveling to Villavicencio with the black Christ statue that was returned to them by the former guerrillas.
FARC delivers new Christ statue to survivors of northwest Colombia massacre
The visit to Villavicencio is the pope’s second after the capital Bogota and precedes visits to Medellin on Saturday and Cartagena on Sunday.