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En Route to Colombia, Pope Speaks Out on Strife in Venezuela

by Diana Logreira

   BOGOTA, COLOMBIA --

   Pope Francis arrived Wednesday in this capital city on a five-day peace
   mission, and his focus primarily will be on salving wounds from
   Colombia's decades of guerrilla warfare, recently ended.

   But strife in neighboring Venezuela also is claiming his attention --
   and some Venezuelans are watching how he responds.

   As his flight took off from Rome early Wednesday, the pontiff spoke
   briefly with journalists onboard, emphasizing his goal to help Colombia
   advance on "the path of peace," the [1]Catholic News Agency reported.
   He then noted the flight path over Venezuela, urging accompanying
   journalists to pray for stability in that country -- and for productive
   dialogue to achieve it.

   Ysbeicy Salcedo, a Venezuelan hairstylist who came to Bogota in June,
   is pessimistic about the Roman Catholic Church's ability to improve
   conditions in her homeland. It's mired in a political and economic
   crisis that has been years in the making.

   "They say that it has influence, but things follow the same," Salcedo
   said of the church. She added that the United States and the church,
   both of which she described as "empires," "have not had weight" in
   resolving tensions.

   Massive, anti-government street demonstrations that began in April have
   left more than 120 dead, though the protests have dwindled.

   The Vatican repeatedly pressed for Venezuela's socialist government to
   hold free elections, and it repeatedly has offered to mediate talks
   among the government's supporters and opponents. The pope himself
   received Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a [2]private audience
   at the Holy See last October. But the Vatican last month condemned the
   new, pro-Maduro constituent assembly as a threat to human rights.

   Francis is the third pope to visit Colombia, but the first Latin
   American pontiff -- born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina -- from a
   region with the largest concentration of the globe's 1.1 billion
   Catholics.

   Nearly four out of 10 Catholics lived in Latin America and the
   Caribbean as of 2010, the Pew Research Center's[3] latest data show.
   Colombia alone had the sixth-largest concentration of Catholics. Out of
   Colombia's almost 49 million people, nearly seven out of 10 identify as
   Catholic.

   "They are quite the believers here," Salcedo said.

   The young woman, who's been studying public relations, grew up in a
   Catholic family and attended Catholic school, but she doesn't identify
   as Catholic.

   Salcedo is part of a tide of Venezuelans that has swept into Colombia
   as conditions at home deteriorated. A native of Los Teques, in Miranda
   state, she was able to obtain permanent residency, a legal status
   Colombia offered to Venezuelans who arrived before July 29.

   Officials with Migration Colombia, a government agency, report that
   153,000 Venezuelans have residency in the country, and that 1.5 million
   have entered as tourists in the last year.

   Although Salcedo said she's grateful to Colombia, she said she would
   return to her own country if conditions there improved. "We want things
   to get better."

   Francis, who became pope in 2013, is scheduled to greet a delegation of
   Venezuelan bishops later in the day.

   Bogota has prepared for the pontiff's visit with tightened security,
   traffic restrictions and school closings.

References

   1. http://www.instagram.com/p/BYtCOtnhYQv/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
   2. https://aleteia.org/2017/07/17/pope-still-trying-to-mediate-peace-in-venezuela-so-far-no-luck/
   3. http://www.pewforum.org/2013/02/13/the-global-catholic-population/