VILLAVICENCIO, Colombia (Reuters) - Pope Francis urged Colombians skeptical of a peace deal with guerrillas to be open to reconciliation with those who have repented, speaking hours after a top rebel leader asked the pontiff for forgiveness.

Pope Francis attends National Reconciliation Encounter at 'Las Malocas' Park in Villavicencio, Colombia, September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

“Dear people of Colombia: do not be afraid of asking for forgiveness and offering it,” he said, at an emotional meeting that brought together victims of the 50-year civil war with former guerrilla and paramilitary fighters.

The Argentine pope, leader of the world’s Roman Catholics, is visiting Colombia with a message of national reconciliation, as the country tries to heal the wounds left by the conflict and bitter disagreements over a peace deal agreed last year.

Francis flew to the city of Villavicencio in Meta province, a vast cattle ranching area which was a hotbed of right-wing paramilitary and Marxist guerrilla violence during a conflict with successive governments.

As he arrived, former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel leader Rodrigo Londono, now the head of a new political party, issued an open letter to the pope asking for forgiveness for the suffering the group inflicted. [nL2N1LP0UZ]

“Your repeated expressions about God’s infinite mercy move me to plead your forgiveness for any tears or pain that we have caused the people of Colombia,” Londono, who goes by the alias Timochenko, said in the letter.

Tens of thousands of ecstatic people in this humid area of savanna and shantytowns packed the roads as the pope, riding in the front seat of a simple car, passed by on Friday morning after his plane arrived from the capital Bogota.

The pope’s afternoon prayer meeting in Villavicencio with about 6,000 survivors of the brutal conflict was the centerpiece of his five-day trip to overwhelmingly Catholic Colombia.

He listened to personal accounts from four people, including a woman who joined a paramilitary group when she was 16, a former FARC guerrilla, and two victims of violence between the guerrillas and paramilitary squads.

One of the victims, Pastora Mira García, told how she lost her father, husband and two children in the conflict. To great applause she urged forgiveness to “break the cycle of violence” and said she could now “name the unnamable and forgive the unforgivable”.

On the wall of the stage was a destroyed statue of Jesus Christ recovered from a church attacked by the FARC in 2002 in the rain forest village of Bojaya. About 80 people were killed as they sought refuge from rebel bombings inside the humble church.

The plaster figure, without arms or legs, has become an enduring symbol of the war.

“As we look at it, we remember not only what happened on that day, but also the immense suffering, the many deaths and broken lives, and all the blood spilled in Colombia these past decades,” the pope said.

DEEPLY POLARIZED

Conflict between right-wing paramilitary squads, Marxist rebels, and government forces since the 1960s has killed more than 220,000 people and left millions more displaced.

Now Colombians are deeply polarized as they prepare to receive 7,000 former fighters, such as Londono, into society.

Many are furious that under last year’s peace deal, FARC leaders accused of kidnapping and murder will avoid jail sentences and may receive seats in congress as members of a new political party. [nL1N1DN22O]

Francis addressed this hesitancy head-on.

“Undoubtedly, it is a challenge for each of us to trust that those who inflicted suffering on communities and on a whole country can take a step forward,” he said.

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“Let us heal that pain and welcome every person who has committed offences, who admits their failures, is repentant and truly wants to make reparation.”

As he left Villavicencio, he stopped to pray at the Reconciliation Cross, a memorial to survivors and those killed during the war, and planted a tree as a symbol of peace.

Earlier, Francis celebrated a Mass for hundreds of thousands of people on a muddy field to beatify Pedro Maria Ramirez, a priest who was killed in 1948 during a period of political violence known as “La Violencia,” and Bishop Jesus Emilio Jaramillo, killed in 1989 by the National Liberation Army (ELN) for suspected collaboration with the military. </s> Pope urges skeptical Colombians to accept peace with guerrillas

By Philip Pullella and Nelson Bocanegra

VILLAVICENCIO, Colombia (Reuters) – Pope Francis urged Colombians skeptical of a peace deal with guerrillas to be open to reconciliation with those who have repented, speaking hours after a top rebel leader asked the pontiff for forgiveness.

“Dear people of Colombia: do not be afraid of asking for forgiveness and offering it,” he said, at an emotional meeting that brought together victims of the 50-year civil war with former guerrilla and paramilitary fighters.

The Argentine pope, leader of the world’s Roman Catholics, is visiting Colombia with a message of national reconciliation, as the country tries to heal the wounds left by the conflict and bitter disagreements over a peace deal agreed last year.

Francis flew to the city of Villavicencio in Meta province, a vast cattle ranching area which was a hotbed of right-wing paramilitary and Marxist guerrilla violence during a conflict with successive governments.

As he arrived, former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel leader Rodrigo Londono, now the head of a new political party, issued an open letter to the pope asking for forgiveness for the suffering the group inflicted. [nL2N1LP0UZ]

“Your repeated expressions about God’s infinite mercy move me to plead your forgiveness for any tears or pain that we have caused the people of Colombia,” Londono, who goes by the alias Timochenko, said in the letter.

Tens of thousands of ecstatic people in this humid area of savanna and shantytowns packed the roads as the pope, riding in the front seat of a simple car, passed by on Friday morning after his plane arrived from the capital Bogota.

The pope’s afternoon prayer meeting in Villavicencio with about 6,000 survivors of the brutal conflict was the centerpiece of his five-day trip to overwhelmingly Catholic Colombia.

He listened to personal accounts from four people, including a woman who joined a paramilitary group when she was 16, a former FARC guerrilla, and two victims of violence between the guerrillas and paramilitary squads.

One of the victims, Pastora Mira García, told how she lost her father, husband and two children in the conflict. To great applause she urged forgiveness to “break the cycle of violence” and said she could now “name the unnamable and forgive the unforgivable”.

On the wall of the stage was a destroyed statue of Jesus Christ recovered from a church attacked by the FARC in 2002 in the rain forest village of Bojaya. About 80 people were killed as they sought refuge from rebel bombings inside the humble church.

The plaster figure, without arms or legs, has become an enduring symbol of the war.

“As we look at it, we remember not only what happened on that day, but also the immense suffering, the many deaths and broken lives, and all the blood spilled in Colombia these past decades,” the pope said.

DEEPLY POLARIZED

Conflict between right-wing paramilitary squads, Marxist rebels, and government forces since the 1960s has killed more than 220,000 people and left millions more displaced.

Now Colombians are deeply polarized as they prepare to receive 7,000 former fighters, such as Londono, into society.

Many are furious that under last year’s peace deal, FARC leaders accused of kidnapping and murder will avoid jail sentences and may receive seats in congress as members of a new political party. [nL1N1DN22O]

Francis addressed this hesitancy head-on.

“Undoubtedly, it is a challenge for each of us to trust that those who inflicted suffering on communities and on a whole country can take a step forward,” he said.

“Let us heal that pain and welcome every person who has committed offences, who admits their failures, is repentant and truly wants to make reparation.”

As he left Villavicencio, he stopped to pray at the Reconciliation Cross, a memorial to survivors and those killed during the war, and planted a tree as a symbol of peace.

Earlier, Francis celebrated a Mass for hundreds of thousands of people on a muddy field to beatify Pedro Maria Ramirez, a priest who was killed in 1948 during a period of political violence known as “La Violencia,” and Bishop Jesus Emilio Jaramillo, killed in 1989 by the National Liberation Army (ELN) for suspected collaboration with the military.

(Additional reporting by Helen Murphy and Anastasia Moloney in Bogota; Writing by Helen Murphy and Phillip Pullella; Editing by Alistair Bell) </s> BOGOTA: Pope Francis urged Colombians on Wednesday (Sep 7) to reject "vengeance" for the sufferings of their civil conflict and promote forgiveness to overcome lingering resentments as the country seeks lasting peace.

Cheering crowds greeted the 80-year-old Argentine pontiff as he prayed for the country to heal the wounds of war - though some warned that forgiveness was hard after so much violence.

Francis spoke alongside President Juan Manuel Santos, who has overseen a controversial peace deal with the FARC rebel force and a ceasefire with the last active guerrilla group, the ELN.

"The steps taken give rise to hope, in the conviction that seeking peace is an open-ended endeavor, a task which does not relent, which demands the commitment of everyone," Francis said.

"May this determination help us flee from the temptation to vengeance and the satisfaction of short-term partisan interests."

Santos won a Nobel Peace Prize last year for his part in the accord that has seen the FARC disarm and transform into a political party.

It was a key step toward ending a many-sided territorial and ideological conflict that has left 260,000 people confirmed dead, 60,000 unaccounted for and seven million displaced.

But the peace process has been fraught with division. Critics say the FARC rebels got off too lightly, with amnesties and alternative sentences.

"This process is a lie ... I believe in God, but I do not need intermediaries," said Bogota resident Luis Eduardo Martinez, 63, commenting on the pope's visit.



"We who saw so many victims die have not lost our resentment. I hope God will allow me to let that resentment go, but it is still there."



In a balcony address later to crowds of young people near Bogota's cathedral, Francis urged them to "dream big" for the country's future.

"Your youthfulness ... makes you capable of something very difficult in life: forgiving. Forgiving those who have hurt us," he said.



Francis last year tried unsuccessfully to mediate between Santos and the lead opponent of the FARC accord, conservative leader Alvaro Uribe.



Uribe wrote a Twitter message welcoming "His Holiness Francis" to Colombia on Wednesday, but without commenting on the peace process.



FARC leader Rodrigo Londono also hailed the pope on Thursday, tweeting his thanks to Francis "for supporting the peace and defending social and environmental justice."



Colombians narrowly rejected the accord in a referendum last year. A reworked version was later pushed through Congress.



Santos thanked Francis for coming to "encourage us to take the first step toward reconciliation," in a speech alongside the pope on Thursday.



"There is no use in ending a war if we still see each other as enemies," Santos added.



After talks with Santos at the presidential palace, Francis visited Bogota cathedral and met with bishops.

He posed for selfies with worshipers and prayed before the image of the Virgin of Chiquinquira, Colombia's patron saint, which was flown to Bogota by helicopter for the occasion.

Francis was scheduled later to celebrate a mass for thousands of worshippers in Simon Bolivar Park. He will then make daily excursions by plane to the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena.



In Villavicencio, he will beatify two Catholic priests killed during the conflict and pray for reconciliation with victims of violence, former guerrilla members and ex-military fighters.

"The more demanding the path that leads to peace and understanding, the greater must be our efforts to acknowledge each other, to heal wounds, to build bridges, to strengthen relationships and support one another," Francis said Thursday.

He then headed inside for private talks with Santos. </s> BOGOTA: Pope Francis held an open-air mass on Thursday (Sep 7) for hundreds of thousands of worshippers in Colombia, urging forgiveness as they seek a lasting end to half a century of civil war.

Cheering crowds greeted the 80-year-old Argentine pontiff as he urged them to reject "vengeance" - though some warned forgiveness was hard after so much violence.

Francis earlier met with President Juan Manuel Santos, who has overseen a controversial peace deal with the FARC rebel force and a ceasefire with the last active guerrilla group, the ELN.

Those are key steps towards ending a many-sided conflict, fueled by drug trafficking, that has left 260,000 people confirmed dead, 60,000 unaccounted for and seven million displaced.

"Here, as in other places, there is a thick darkness which threatens and destroys life," Francis said in his homily in Bogota's Simon Bolivar Park.

"The darkness of thirst for vengeance and the hatred which stains the hands of those who would right wrongs on their own authority; the darkness of those who become numb to the pain of so many victims. Jesus scatters and destroys all this darkness."

Beside Francis on the roofed stage, prayers were read by guests including an indigenous leader in a feathered head-dress - a representative of the rural communities particularly hurt by the war.

Santos won a Nobel Peace Prize last year for his part in the accord that has seen the FARC disarm and transform into a political party.

But the peace process has been fraught with division. Critics say the FARC rebels got off too lightly, with amnesties and alternative sentences.

Francis last year tried unsuccessfully to mediate between Santos and the lead opponent of the FARC accord, conservative ex-president Alvaro Uribe.



"This process is a lie ... I believe in God, but I do not need intermediaries," said Bogota resident Luis Eduardo Martinez, 63, commenting on the pope's visit as Francis's admirers gathered.



"We who saw so many victims die have not lost our resentment. I hope God will allow me to let that resentment go, but it is still there."



In a balcony address to crowds of young people near Bogota's cathedral, Francis urged them to "dream big" for the country's future.



"Your youthfulness ... makes you capable of something very difficult in life: forgiving. Forgiving those who have hurt us," he said.



FARC leader Rodrigo Londono hailed the pope, tweeting his thanks to Francis "for supporting the peace and defending social and environmental justice."

Santos thanked Francis for coming to "encourage us to take the first step toward reconciliation.



Carlos Arturo Rodriguez, 51, an indigenous traditional doctor, traveled from the southern Caqueta region to see the pope.



Rodriguez told AFP his wife and various other relatives were killed by state security forces during the conflict. "I forgive them with all my heart," he said. "But I don't know whether my God does."



After talks with Santos at the presidential palace, Francis visited Bogota cathedral and met with bishops.

He posed for selfies with worshippers and prayed before the image of the Virgin of Chiquinquira, Colombia's patron saint, which was flown to Bogota by helicopter for the occasion.



From Friday he will make daily excursions by plane to the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena.

In Villavicencio, he will pray for reconciliation with victims of violence, former guerrilla members and ex-military fighters.

"I think this pope has a very positive energy," said Cristal Vivas, 15, who came out to see him in Bogota. "He puts himself in the place of us, the common people... and inspires peace in people." </s> Rome, September 7 - Pope Francis on Thursday urged Colombian civil and political authorities to "heal wounds" and "not indulge in any vendettas" following more than 50 years of conflict between the government and FARC rebels. The pontiff said it was time "to help each other" after hatred that had lasted "too long". "Bullets are becoming words" of peace and reconciliation, President Juan Manuel Sanchos told the pope in Bogotà. Pope Francis and President Santos on Thursday lit a torch of peace symbolising the South American country's desire to achieve peace after more than 50 years of conflict ended last year. "Thank you for accompanying us and stimulating us in our first step towards reconciliation," Santos told the pope three months after FARC rebels completed handing in their weapons. Upon his arrival in Colombia Wednesday, the pope met with victims of the 52-year conflict between the government and the FARC rebels. Among the youth he met was Emmanuel, son of Clara Rojas, an MP today who was taken hostage in 2002 and held by the FARC for years in the jungle, where the boy was born. Arriving in the nunciature, Francis met a group of young people in a programme of recovery from drugs and street life in the barrios. "Don't let them steal your happiness, and let no one deceive you or steal your hope," Francis said. The pope then turned his attention to Venezuela where, he said, "may dialogue happen and may the country rediscover a good stability with the dialogue of all". After meeting Colombian authorities and bishops, Francis will celebrate a Mass later today. </s> Pope Francis urged young Colombians on Thursday to take the lead in promoting forgiveness to help their country heal from a half-century of conflict, saying they should "look to the future without the burden of hatred" that their elders often carry.

From the halls of the presidential palace to the green hills of Bogota's Simon Bolivar Park, Francis brought his message of reconciliation to a country still bitterly divided over the peace deal with leftist rebels that is seeking to end Latin America's longest-running armed rebellion. And he demanded that its leaders now address the gross inequalities that sparked the conflict to begin with.

"Let us not forget that inequality is the root of social ills," he told a crowd at Bogota's presidential palace that included disabled children and soldiers with amputated limbs.

While his appeal for forgiveness may be hard for some to swallow, Francis was nevertheless given a rock star's welcome on his first full day in Colombia. Young choir members abandoned their positions in the palace courtyard and threw their arms around him as he arrived. In Bogota's main Plaza Bolivar, thousands of young people interrupted him repeatedly with cheers. And officials estimated 1.3 million people flocked to Bogota's main park for his open-air Mass, far more than the 700,000 expected.

History's first Latin American pope took the crowds, interruptions, protocol hiccups and security breaches in stride, seemingly relishing in the adoration of one of the continent's most staunchly Roman Catholic countries.

His message though was stern, urging the country's elite and ordinary to resist the temptation for vengeance, the "corrupting darkness" of self-interest, and instead build bridges to help the nation heal.

"The solitude of always being at loggerheads has been familiar for decades, and its smell has lingered for a hundred years," he said, alluding to the most famous work of Colombia's Nobel laureate, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. "We do not want any type of violence whatsoever to restrict or destroy one more life."

One year after the government signed a peace accord with rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known by its Spanish acronym FARC, the guns have fallen silent and 7,000 rebels are transitioning back to civilian life. But Colombians remain badly divided over the accord, with conservative opponents seeing it as too generous for the guerrillas who were behind scores of atrocities during the conflict.

In all, the fighting left more than 250,000 people dead, 60,000 missing and millions more displaced.

Francis is expected to press his call for forgiveness further on Friday when he travels to Villavincencio, south of Bogota, where he is to preside over a meeting of reconciliation between victims of the conflict and those who victimized them.

"It's a great message for all of the country, especially because of the moment we are living in," said Maria Juliana Higuera, one of more than 20,000 people who packed Bogota's central Plaza Bolivar for a papal blessing. "It's very important to us as Catholics."

Francis appealed to Colombia's youth to take the lead in promoting forgiveness, saying young people more than adults are able to "leave behind what has hurt us and look to the future without the burden of hatred."

"You make us see the wider world which stands before us, the whole of Colombia that wishes to grow and continue its development," he said.

Looking ahead, Francis insisted that Colombia now needed to enact "just laws" to resolve the structural causes of poverty and inequality to "overcome the conflicts that have torn apart this nation for decades."

The FARC formed as a Marxist army in the mid-1960s to overthrow Colombia's economic and social system and open the way to redistributing land.

While the first year of the accord's implementation has seen the FARC disarm, it also has been marked by the state's failures to bring services to hard-to-reach communities where the government has historically had little presence and where rebels are beginning a new chapter as civilians. Former guerrillas arriving at many of the 26 demobilization zones found little more than fields of mud, and months later many remain living in tents rather than the buildings with running water and electricity that the government promised.

Colombia is the most unequal country in terms of land distribution in Latin America, itself the worst region in the world. Large agricultural holdings of more than 500 hectares represent around 0.4 per cent of all farms in Colombia but control more than 67 per cent of the productive land, according to an Oxfam report last year.

The peace deal and an earlier land reform are supposed to redistribute the land and compensate victims driven from their homesteads by illegal armed groups. But authorities overseeing the process have been slow to hand out titles, and peasanto farmers in far-flung regions face numerous threats asserting their rights. Last year, 59 human rights defenders – many of them land rights activists – were killed yet only a handful of their murders ever solved, according to the United Nations.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who won last year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the conflict, urged Colombians to let go of lingering resentments.

"Silencing the guns is worthless if we remain armed in our hearts," he told the crowd. "Ending the war is worthless if we still see each other as enemies."

In between his main events Thursday, Francis met with bishops from around the region, including his first encounter with clergy from neighbouring Venezuela who are looking for the pope to demand accountability from their country's socialist government and deliver a message of hope to that nation torn by political and economic turmoil.

Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, archbishop of Caracas, said the situation was "truly desperate," with people eating garbage and dying for lack of medicine. "So we want to remind the pope of this again and especially the serious political situation because the government is doing everything possible to establish a state system, totalitarian and Marxist," he said. </s> Pope Francis urged young Colombians on Thursday to take the lead in promoting forgiveness after a half-century of armed conflict, and he demanded the ruling class address the entrenched inequalities that sparked Latin America's longest-running armed rebellion.

"There has been too much hatred and violence," Francis told a crowd at Bogota's presidential palace that included disabled children and soldiers with amputated limbs.

Francis received a raucous welcome on his first full day in Colombia, with young choir members abandoning their positions in the palace courtyard and throwing their arms around him as he arrived. The crowd was equally jubilant at Bogota's main Plaza Bolivar, where about 22,000 flag-waving Colombians interrupted him repeatedly.

History's first Latin American pope took the interruptions, protocol hiccups and security breaches in stride, joking with the crowds and relishing in the adoration of one of the continent's most staunchly Roman Catholic countries.

In his first major speech of his trip, Francis appealed to President Juan Manuel Santos and Colombia's political, cultural and economic elite to avoid the temptation to seek vengeance as the country emerges from the conflict and works to rebuild. Instead, he said they should commit themselves to "heal wounds, build bridges, strengthen relationships and support one another."

One year after the government signed a peace accord with rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known by its Spanish acronym FARC, the guns have fallen silent and 7,000 rebels are transitioning back to civilian life. But Colombians remain badly divided over the accord, with conservative opponents seeing it as too generous for the guerrillas who were behind scores of atrocities during the conflict.

In all, the fighting left more than 250,000 people dead, 60,000 missing and millions more displaced.

Citing the most famous work of Colombia's Nobel laureate, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Francis said Colombians now needed to reconcile.

"The solitude of always being at loggerheads has been familiar for decades, and its smell has lingered for a hundred years," he said. "We do not want any type of violence whatsoever to restrict or destroy one more life."

Francis appealed to Colombia's youth to take the lead in promoting forgiveness, saying young people more than adults are able to "leave behind what has hurt us and look to the future without the burden of hatred."

"You make us see the wider world which stands before us, the whole of Colombia that wishes to grow and continue its development," he said.

Looking ahead, Francis insisted that Colombia now needed to enact "just laws" to resolve the structural causes of poverty and inequality to "overcome the conflicts that have torn apart this nation for decades."

"Let us not forget that inequality is the root of social ills," he warned.

The FARC formed as a Marxist army in the mid-1960s to overthrow Colombia's economic and social system and open the way to redistributing land amid gross economic inequalities.

While the first year of the accord's implementation has seen the FARC disarm, it also has been marked by the state's failures to bring services to hard-to-reach communities where the government has historically had little presence and where rebels are beginning a new chapter as civilians. Former guerrillas arriving at many of the 26 demobilization zones found little more than fields of mud, and months later many remain living in tents rather than the buildings with running water and electricity that the government promised.

Colombia is the most unequal country in terms of land distribution in Latin America, itself the worst region in the world. Large agricultural holdings of more than 500 hectares represent around 0.4 percent of all farms in Colombia but control more than 67 percent of the productive land, according to an Oxfam report last year.

The peace deal and an earlier land reform are supposed to redistribute the land and compensate victims driven from their homesteads by illegal armed groups. But authorities overseeing the process have been slow to hand out titles, and peasant farmers in far-flung regions face numerous threats asserting their rights. Last year, 59 human rights defenders — many of them land rights activists — were killed yet only a handful of their murders ever solved, according to the United Nations.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who won last year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the conflict, echoed the pope's words in his speech, urging Colombians to let go of lingering resentments.

"Silencing the guns is worthless if we remain armed in our hearts," he told the crowd. "Ending the war is worthless if we still see each other as enemies."

Francis had a packed day Thursday, meeting with bishops from around the region, including his first encounter with clergy from neighboring Venezuela who are looking for the pope to demand accountability from their country's socialist government and deliver a message of hope to that nation torn by political and economic turmoil.

He ends the day with an outdoor Mass in Simon Bolivar Park, with hundreds of thousands expected.

The theme of reconciliation wasn't far from Francis' mind from the moment he arrived in Bogota on Wednesday to great fanfare.

In a gesture likely to mark the deep symbolism of the trip, he was presented on the tarmac with a commemorative peace dove by a youth who was born in a jungle camp to a guerrilla father and a politician mother after she was taken captive by FARC rebels in 2002. Clara Rojas, now a congresswoman, did not see her son after his birth until she was freed in 2008 when he was 3.

Francis then made his way in the popemobile past thousands of people who had stood for hours waiting to catch a glimpse of the wildly popular pontiff along the 15-kilometer (9-mile) route from the airport to the Vatican Embassy.

With no police line in sight, Francis was practically mobbed by well-wishers, though he seemed to revel in the outpouring of emotion from people showering him with flowers, red-yellow-and-blue Colombian flags and shouts of "Viva Francisco." He even gave a few high-fives to some youths who got a little too close.

Once at the Nunciature in Bogota, where Francis will sleep every night, he delivered his first public remarks to a group of young people battling drug addiction, urging them never to lose "happiness and hope."

It was a message that resonated with Angie Albanil, who spent part of her teenage years on the streets of Bogota but now is getting back on her feet as part of a church-backed group that performed rap and traditional cumbia music for the pontiff.

"The ills that have spread in society, we're the ones who have to overcome them with respect for people who think differently," she said in a prepared remarks read to the pope upon his arrival. "We're the ones who have to build a society in which we all fit." </s> BOGOTA — At the start of his first full day in Colombia, Pope Francis urged Colombians to persevere on the path to reconciliation and reject violence despite an unpopular peace deal that has left the country deeply divided.

“There has been too much hatred and vengeance,” Francis said in a speech at the country’s presidential palace, his first address of the day. “We do not want any type of violence whatsoever to restrict or destroy one more life.”

Colombia has recently emerged from a bloody civil war that lasted over 50 years, left 220,000 dead and displaced millions. But the country remains divided over a 2016 deal between the government and the FARC guerrilla group that brought an end to the violence. The deal gave amnesty to 7,000 former FARC guerillas, and some may win seats in Congress. Many Colombians think the deal is far too kind to the rebels.

Francis urged the crowd of 750 members of Colombia’s elite to remain committed to peace despite the unpopularity of the deal.

“The more demanding the path … the greater must be our efforts to acknowledge each other, to heal wounds, to build bridges, to strengthen relationships and support one another,” he said.

But Francis told the lawmakers that just laws are needed to resolve the “structural causes of poverty that lead to exclusion and violence.” He called inequality “the root of social ills,” and said Colombia needs the participation of all members of society — including the indigenous people and women — to thrive.

Later in the morning, he told 22,000 young people gathered in front of the Cardinal’s Palace that they must be agents of healing through forgiveness.

“Your youthfulness also makes you capable of something very difficult in life: forgiving,” he said. “It is remarkable to see how you do not get entangled in old stories, how you watch with surprise when we adults repeat events that divide us simply by being tied to resentments.”

Francis will spend the entire day in Bogota, visiting its cathedral and addressing the country’s bishops. Later in the afternoon, he will celebrate mass before an expected crowd of over 1 million people.

Large enthusiastic crowds have lined the streets of Bogota to catch a glimpse of the pope in his popemobile, chanting and running alongside it.

This is Francis’ 20th trip abroad, and the fifth to his native continent of South America.

In addition to Bogota, the Pope will also visit the city of Villavicencio – where he will lead a prayer for national reconciliation – as well as Medellin and Cartagena, before heading back to Rome on Sunday night.

Article originally appeared on Today Colombia and is republished here with permission. </s> BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) — Pope Francis arrived in Colombia Sept. 6 for a five-day visit to promote reconciliation in a deeply Catholic country scarred and reticent to offer forgiveness after decades of war.

The pope was greeted was welcomed by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and his wife, Maria Clemencia Rodriguez Munera. Children in traditional costumes presented him with flowers, and the pope greeted members of the Colombian military, including soldiers injured in the line of duty.

In a gesture to promote the themes of peace and reconciliation, he was given a dove by a boy named Emmanuel, who was born in a guerrilla camp to Colombian politician Clara Rojas, kidnapped in 2002 and released nearly six years later.

On the 12-hour flight from Rome, Pope Francis told reporters that the trip was “to help Colombia go forward in its journey of peace.”

Expectations for Pope Francis’ visit are running high among Colombian Catholics. It’s the first papal trip to Colombia since 1986, when St. John Paul II visited.

But he arrived after the signing of a peace accord promising to put Colombia on a path of ending more than 50 years of armed conflict. Just days before the visit, the National Liberation Army, a Marxist organization carrying out crimes like kidnap and bombings, and the government agreed to a four-month cease-fire.

Challenges remain, especially as many Colombians — including Catholics and those of conservative persuasions — object to the idea of demobilized Marxist guerrillas accused of atrocities receiving reduced punishments and even participating in politics. Those persecuted by paramilitaries voice similar misgivings.

“We are expecting that the pope brings a lot of hope,” said Msgr. Hector Fabio Henao, director of Caritas Colombia. “The pope arrives at a time when reconciliation is the greatest challenge. We hope that his message touches the hearts of those who have suffered due to this conflict.”

The papal trip carries the motto: “Let’s take the first step,” purposely chosen to convey a sense of collective involvement in the country’s peace process.

“The motto of the apostolic trip says exactly what we are expecting: Let’s take the first step,” said Auxiliary Bishop Juan Carlos Cardenas Toro of Cali. “This first step by the pope, stepping off the flight to come closer to this nation, which has suffered, is something for us that opens the door to hope.”

The Colombian government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym as FARC, reached a peace accord in 2016, in which the FARC agreed to demobilize. The agreement has proved polemic, even though violence perpetrated by guerrilla groups, government soldiers and paramilitaries has left an estimated 220,000 dead and millions more displaced.

Catholics are divided on the peace accord, and Colombian bishops have stayed on the sidelines, while encouraging the laity to voice their opinions. Many conservative Catholics, along with evangelicals, argued the deal included provisions harmful to the traditional family — a charge denied by peace accord proponents; opponents turned out to defeat the deal in a plebiscite.

The accord later was reworked and approved in Congress. People say they want peace, but disagree — often strongly — on how to pursue it

“The church itself reflects the divisions in Colombian society,” said Jesuit Father Mauricio Garcia Duran. “The pope comes to Colombia in a context of polarization.”

The papal visit touches on themes important to the country and church. In the capital, Bogota, Sept. 7, the pope will celebrate a Mass focused on young people, expected to attract more than 1 million attendees.

He travels Sept. 8 to Villavicencio — gateway to the at-times neglected southern half of Colombia — where he will pray with 6,000 victims of violence and is expected to call for reconciliation. That call for reconciliation will include a call to reconcile with creation; included in the audience will be indigenous peoples from the Amazon and lands increasingly exploited by mining and natural resource extraction.

The following day, Pope Francis will address clergy and religious in the city of Medellin. He also will visit a Catholic orphanage.

Pope Francis ends his visit to Colombia on the Caribbean coast in the city of Cartagena. There he is expected to address the church’s controversial history of trafficking slaves to the New World.

He will also recite the Angelus at a shrine to St. Peter Claver, a Jesuit who worked to stop slavery.

Contributing to this story was Cindy Wooden in Bogota.

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Pope Francis, responding to FARC rebel leader Rodrigo Londoño's open letter asking for forgiveness for the suffering the group had inflicted on the country during his talk in Villavicencio, urges Colombians skeptical of the peace deal to be open to reconciliation.