By; News room
Pope Francis has entered his second day visit to Colombia and today is expected to address clergy and religious in the city of Medellin, visit a war orphanage home and later celebrate mass in the capital, Bogota, expected to attract over a million people.
Pope Francis arrived in Colombia on Wednesday evening September 6th 2017, for a five-day reconciliation visit in one of the world’s Catholic Country that has suffered decades of war.
The Pope was greeted by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, his wife, Maria Clemencia Rodriguez Munera and children in traditional attire who presented him with flowers, Pope Francis greeted members of the Colombian military, including soldiers injured in the line of duty.
The papal trip carries a motto: “Let’s take the first step,” purposely chosen to convey a sense of collective involvement in the country’s peace process.
But he arrived after the signing of a peace accord aimed at securing Colombia back to peace and seeing an end to more than 50 years of armed conflict. His visit also came just days after the National Liberation Army, a Marxist organization that has been accused of carrying out crimes like kidnap and bombings, agreed to a four months cease fire with the government.
This is the first papal trip to Colombia since 1986, when St. John Paul II visited the same country.
Tomorrow September 8, he will travel to Villavicencio — gateway to the neglected southern half of Colombia — where he will pray with 6,000 victims of violence and is expected to call for reconciliation. His trip will end with a visit to the Caribbean coast in the city of Cartagena where 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
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