(CNN) When Pope Francis arrives Wednesday in Colombia for a five-day visit, he'll be on difficult terrain, and not just because of the country's high altitude.

In early 2016, Francis promised he would visit the South American country once a peace agreement ending its civil war of more than 50 years had been reached. A few months later, the government and FARC rebels forged an agreement, but Colombian voters struck it down in a referendum.

A revised agreement was not put to a second referendum but passed in Colombia's Congress in November. President Juan Manuel Santos received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, but the deal is still unpopular.

Now the Pope must make good on his promise and help the peace agreed to on paper become a reality in the hearts of a divided Colombia.

"The Vatican has made it very clear that the Holy Father is not going to Colombia to bless the peace process or support either the government or the opposition," said Nestor Ponguta, a longtime Vatican correspondent for W Radio Colombia and the author of a book on Pope Francis.

"The great hope for his visit is that it helps us to heal the wounds, and that the message extends to other countries like Venezuela that are experiencing very difficult conflicts."

The Pope and Vatican diplomacy have been working for several years to help Colombia achieve peace.

In December, Francis personally brought together Santos and opposition leader, former President Alvaro Uribe, in an unprecedented three-way meeting at the Vatican.

The Pope publicly called on Colombia's leaders to push forward on the path to peace from Havana's Revolution Plaza during a visit to Cuba in 2015. "We do not have the right to allow ourselves yet another failure," he said.

The 52-year civil war in Colombia, the longest in Latin American history, has claimed 220,000 lives and displaced millions.

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry officially recognized Francis' role in helping to end the conflict.

"I also must express my deep appreciation to Pope Francis for his moral leadership and the Vatican's good offices in the quest for peace in Colombia," Kerry said in 2015

Though the focus is on peace, Vatican officials say the Pope's visit is about much more.

"This trip is daring and important," Guzman Carriquiry, vice president of the Vatican's Commission for Latin America, said at a Vatican briefing Friday. "It is wrong to only focus on peace; the Pope sees this trip as part of a long process in fighting violence."

Carriquiry pointed to some causes of the violence. "Over 50% of (the) Colombian population live in poverty; the drug trafficking culture poisons and creates corruption in the life of the country."

During his visit, Francis will stay at the papal ambassador's residence in Bogota and take day trips to Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena.

The Pope will participate in a prayer meeting for national reconciliation Friday in Villavicencio with some 6,000 victims of violence, former fighters and militia.

At Mass on Friday, Francis will beatify two Colombian priests who were killed in violence.

Bishop Jesus Emilio Jaramillo Monsalve of Arauca, was shot twice in the head by rebels in 1989 and the Rev. Pedro Ramirez Ramos, known as the "martyr of Armero," was killed in 1948. </s> BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Pope Francis opens the first full day in his Colombia visit on Thursday with messages to political leaders and citizens alike encouraging all to rally behind a peace process seeking an end for Latin America’s longest-running conflict and to address the inequalities that fueled it.

Francis will kick off the day with a meeting with President Juan Manuel Santos at the presidential palace, where he is likely to call for a building of bridges among elites bitterly divided by last year’s peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

It will be followed in the afternoon by an outdoor Mass in Simon Bolivar Park that is expected to be attended by hundreds of thousands of worshippers in one of Latin America’s most-fervently Roman Catholic nations.

In between, he is to meet 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 a nation torn by political and economic turmoil.

His 20th trip abroad as pope, Francis’ five-day visit to Colombia is a highly emotional one, fulfilling a promise he made to government and FARC negotiators when he visited Cuba in 2015 as negotiations between the two dragged on in Havana.

Back then, he appealed to both sides not to let the historic opportunity for peace slip by. But now that the deal is signed, the guns silenced and 7,000 rebels are transitioning back to civilian life, Colombians face the even more difficult challenge of coming together and eradicating the social disparities at the root of the half-century conflict.

Santos, the winner last year of the Nobel Peace Prize, offered thanks on Wednesday for Pope Francis pushing negotiators during difficult moments of the four-year talks. He expressed hope the pontiff’s visit will inspire Colombians to take the next step and definitively put behind them the long decades of political violence that left 220,000 dead and 7 million internally displaced.

“Peace needs a solid foundation, and reconciliation is one of those pillars that we hopefully we will not only plant but also strengthen,” Santos told reporters.

The theme of reconciliation wasn’t far from Francis’ mind from the moment he arrived in Bogota late Wednesday afternoon 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 again until she was rescued 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’s 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 not to ever 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.”

Associated Press writers Cesar Garcia and Juan Zamorano contributed to this report. </s> BOGOTA, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Pope Francis will use his first full day in Colombia to send a message of unity, planting a tree of peace and saying a Mass to preach reconciliation in a nation bitterly divided after five decades of war.

Francis received a tumultuous welcome on Wednesday afternoon. Screaming crowds mobbed the popemobile carrying the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics as it made its way slowly from the airport to the Vatican Embassy in central Bogota.

Faithful threw flowers and held up children to be kissed.

"Don't let anyone steal your happiness, don't let anyone steal your hope," Francis told young people outside the embassy, his residence during the trip.

Francis, making his 20th foreign trip since becoming pontiff in 2013 and his fifth to his native Latin America, will spend all of Thursday in Bogota and then make day visits to the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena before leaving for Rome on Sunday night.

The Argentine pope will hold private meetings with President Juan Manuel Santos and Catholic bishops. He will also meet bishops from Venezuela, which has gone through months of protests against President Nicolas Maduro, who has tightened his hold on power amid an escalating economic crisis.

Francis will encourage reconciliation for Colombians as they prepare to receive 7,000 former FARC rebels into society and aim to repair divisions after a war that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions over five decades.

During his stay in Bogota - whose theme is "Builders of Peace, Promoters of Life" - Francis will visit the colonial cathedral to pray before a painting of Our Lady of Chiquinquira, the patron saint of overwhelmingly Catholic Colombia.

The afternoon Mass in the capital's sprawling Simon Bolivar Park is expected to draw more than a million people.

Former fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, now a civilian political party, hope to use words instead of weapons to change Colombia.

But many are furious that under the 2016 peace deal FARC leaders accused of kidnapping, displacements and murder will avoid jail sentences and instead may receive seats in congress.

Anger over the accord has not dampened enthusiasm for the pope's visit. Tens of thousands are expected to pack the main cathedral square carrying rosaries, waving flags and wearing T-shirts and baseball caps bearing Francis' image.

People were already saving spaces along the route to Bolivar Park, nearly 24 hours before the Mass was due to start.

"It's fantastic, we're so happy, he radiates love, mercy, compassion, joy, peace for the Colombian people," said economist Maria Claudia Garavito, 57.

"The important thing is that people, politicians and civil society disarm our hearts so that we can move forward for the union and reconciliation of the country." (Reporting by Helen Murphy; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) </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.

Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com. </s> 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.

Slideshow (15 Images)

“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 Francis will use his first full day in Colombia to send a message of unity, planting a tree of peace and saying a Mass to preach reconciliation in a nation bitterly divided after five decades of war.

BOGOTA: Pope Francis will use his first full day in Colombia to send a message of unity, planting a tree of peace and saying a Mass to preach reconciliation in a nation bitterly divided after five decades of war.

Francis received a tumultuous welcome on Wednesday afternoon. Screaming crowds mobbed the popemobile carrying the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics as it made its way slowly from the airport to the Vatican Embassy in central Bogota.

Faithful threw flowers and held up children to be kissed.

"Don't let anyone steal your happiness, don't let anyone steal your hope," Francis told young people outside the embassy, his residence during the trip.

Francis, making his 20th foreign trip since becoming pontiff in 2013 and his fifth to his native Latin America, will spend all of Thursday in Bogota and then make day visits to the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena before leaving for Rome on Sunday night.

The Argentine pope will hold private meetings with President Juan Manuel Santos and Catholic bishops. He will also meet bishops from Venezuela, which has gone through months of protests against President Nicolas Maduro, who has tightened his hold on power amid an escalating economic crisis.

Francis will encourage reconciliation for Colombians as they prepare to receive 7,000 former FARC rebels into society and aim to repair divisions after a war that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions over five decades.

During his stay in Bogota - whose theme is "Builders of Peace, Promoters of Life" - Francis will visit the colonial cathedral to pray before a painting of Our Lady of Chiquinquira, the patron saint of overwhelmingly Catholic Colombia.

The afternoon Mass in the capital's sprawling Simon Bolivar Park is expected to draw more than a million people.

Former fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, now a civilian political party, hope to use words instead of weapons to change Colombia.

But many are furious that under the 2016 peace deal FARC leaders accused of kidnapping, displacements and murder will avoid jail sentences and instead may receive seats in congress.

Anger over the accord has not dampened enthusiasm for the pope's visit. Tens of thousands are expected to pack the main cathedral square carrying rosaries, waving flags and wearing T-shirts and baseball caps bearing Francis' image.

People were already saving spaces along the route to Bolivar Park, nearly 24 hours before the Mass was due to start.

"It's fantastic, we're so happy, he radiates love, mercy, compassion, joy, peace for the Colombian people," said economist Maria Claudia Garavito, 57.

"The important thing is that people, politicians and civil society disarm our hearts so that we can move forward for the union and reconciliation of the country." </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 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 — 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.
Pope Francis arrives in Colombia for a five-day visit. In early 2016, Francis promised he would visit the South American country once a civil war peace agreement was in place.