VATICAN CITY, NOV. 25, 2002 (Zenit.org).- The president of Guatemala visited John Paul II in the Vatican to thank him for his visit to Central America last July.
During their 15-minute private meeting, Alfonso Portillo Cabrera and the Pope discussed the peace process in Guatemala.
“I think the trip undertaken by His Holiness mapped out a path which all of us have followed,” Portillo told Vatican Radio after the audience.
“In Guatemala, there can be no peace without justice,” the president said. “And justice, in turn, is not possible without forgiveness. These words have done us much good and I hope they will enlighten Guatemalans, not only Catholics, but all Christians in general, men of good will, so that a different homeland can be constructed, which respects life and the human being.”
Three-quarters of Guatemala’s 13 million inhabitants are Catholic. In recent decades, Protestant groups and sects have spread, with financial backing from U.S. organizations.
John Paul II had visited the country on two previous occasions, in 1983 and 1996, a period in which the civil war was still raging. The war produced 1 million refugees and left 200,000 dead.
On his third visit, last July 29-30, the Pope canonized Brother Pedro de San José de Betancur.
“This third visit took place at a time after the conflict, when the construction of peace cannot be postponed,” President Portillo said. “This construction foresees the elimination of the causes that led to the conflict among us.”
“To do so,” he added, “it is important to understand that there can be no peace in Guatemala if there is no justice, that peace is a gift of God and that it is understood that there is no justice without forgiveness.”
