Cardinal Talks to Colombia Rebels, Hopes for Peace

BOGOTA, Colombia, MAY 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos says he has talked with rebels in Colombia and thinks they are willing to seek solutions to the conflict in the South American country.

Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei and a Colombian, said he has spoken by telephone with members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). He affirmed that he saw in them a "will to be open," RCN Radio reported.

"We have spoken as Colombians and as Christians," he said. "This week I have spoken by phone [with them]. Despite all the difficulties, despite being still in warlike activities, there is also a will to be open, the same [will] that I have found in the president (Álvaro Uribe)."

"The moment arrived for reason to be above weapons and for weapons to defend reason. ... I very much hope for peace in Colombia," the prelate continued, adding that he is trusting there will be a move toward "sincere, true dialogue about concrete things."

"There will always be actions that we don't understand, many actions that we deplore, even that from the perspective of Catholic morality, we reject," Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos said. "But these actions do not totally hide the panorama of hope and the horizon of peace."