Pope Francis to visit Colombia, urges support for peace process

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

World | Thu Apr 2, 2015 12:58pm EDT

Pope Francis to visit Colombia, urges support for peace process

BOGOTA

(Reuters) - Pope Francis will visit Colombia, the Vatican said on Thursday, as the pontiff urged Colombians to work for peace as the country conducts talks with Marxist rebels to end 50 years of war.

The pope will add Colombia to an upcoming tour of Latin America, the Vatican said in a letter to the country's Catholic leadership, without specifying a date.

"His Holiness invites you to be collaborators in the construction of peace," the letter said, adding that the 78-year-old Argentine pope expressed solidarity with the victims of the war, which has killed 220,000 people.

"We will receive (the Pope) with open arms and hearts as a messenger of peace and reconciliation," President Juan Manuel Santos said on Twitter.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/02/us-colombia-pope-idUSKBN0MT1ZH20150402

[Judi Lynn]

1. Hope his actions will throw some weight behind the process. n/t