AMERICA/COLOMBIA - Threatened with death bishops, religious and agencies working to promote respect for human rights

Friday, 11 June 2010

COLOMBIA

2023-07-03
Armed attack against two pastoral workers: reflection of violations of civil society

2023-05-24
The search for peace is based on respect for life, human dignity and dialogue, not on violence

2023-05-17
Families "promoters of human life, builders of society, custodians of the common home and active subjects of evangelization"

2023-05-16
Educating young people for peace, a sign of hope in the midst of the Colombian conflict

2023-05-03
Day of prayer for reconciliation and peace: peace is possible, it is necessary, it is everyone's responsibility

2023-04-14
The "District of Mercy": proclamation of the Gospel and promotion of human dignity in the center of the capital

Santa Rosa de Osos (Agenzia Fides) – The diocese of Santa Rosa de Osos in Colombia and the Colombian Catholic Bishops' Conference issued a statement strongly condemning a recent attack on the residence of the Bishop of Santa Rosa de Osos, Mgr. Jairo Jaramillo Monsalve. Early in the morning of June 10, a bomb exploded in front of the Bishops' House, damaging part of the facade.
The statement, sent to Fides News Agency, reads as follows: “We consider these actions as direct attacks on the Church as she exercises her prophetic mission which includes announcing and denouncing the complex situation all over the country but especially in the diocese of Santa Rosa de Osos.”
The statement continues “the priests in the diocese of Santa Rosa de Osos firmly reject such expressions of violence which does nothing to help efforts being made to promote peace, respect and dialogue”.
The diocese of Santa Rosa de Osos, created in 1917, comprises 29 districts in the regions of North, North-East and Bajo Cauca, with a total number of 80 parish communities, circa 550,000 people in an area of 22,000 sq km.
In another part of Colombia, in the centre of the country, Bishop Camilo Fernando Castrellón Pizano, SDB, Bishop of Barrancabermeja, issued a statement following threats received by the Jesuit Refugee Service and other organisations involved in promoting respect for rights, labour rights and social harmony. The Bishop recalls that “God alone is the Lord of life”, and, quoting John Paul II, affirms the inalienability of human rights and the unacceptability of violence. Dialogue, he says, again quoting the same Pontiff, is the only path to social harmony.
The following part of the statement from Bishop Camilo Fernando Castrellón Pizano is reported by the Bishops' Conference web site: "I consider this not only a grave error but something which is totally wrong: with the power of arms these people intend to intimidate individuals, institutions and communities and impose their own opinion as the only path, ignoring respect for the dignity of every human person, for human rights and, consequently, the right to diverge and to hold a different opinion". (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 11/06/2010)