(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 05.19.2025).- Colombian President Gustavo Petro met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican this Monday May 19, using the opportunity to draw attention to Colombia’s challenges and aspirations—ranging from internal peace to planetary survival.
The meeting, which took place in the private confines of the Apostolic Palace and lasted 22 minutes, was Petro’s first audience with the newly elected pontiff. According to sources familiar with the discussion, the tone was both cordial and intense, reflecting the weight of the topics under consideration.
President Petro did not shy away from bold appeals. He framed climate change not as an abstract threat but as the existential pivot around which global politics—and humanity’s survival—must now turn. “If the U.S. government continues to treat migration as the core issue,” he told the Pope, “it will end up sacrificing its own children.” The Colombian leader’s provocative statement underscored his central thesis: that the fight against climate catastrophe should eclipse all other agendas, and that failure to do so will only exacerbate displacement, conflict, and suffering.
Petro expressed hope that Pope Leo XIV, born in the United States but deeply familiar with Latin American realities, could serve as a cultural and moral bridge—especially in opening the eyes of Washington to what he called “the real priority: life itself.”
The dialogue also veered into the troubled terrain of Colombia’s domestic conflict. Petro acknowledged the complex evolution of guerrilla groups like the ELN, stating bluntly that they have “abandoned revolutionary ideals” and become entangled in the logic of narcotrafficking. He emphasized, however, that despite their descent into criminality, the path of reconciliation remains open.
“The banners of transformation were traded for the flags of Mexican cartels,” he admitted, “but there is a second chance.” The president highlighted ongoing dialogues in Cuba and Venezuela, thanking those nations for hosting peace talks. But he pointed to the Vatican as a potentially more symbolic and effective venue, invoking the notion of “effective love” as a transformative political principle. “Here, in this city of power and memory, maybe we can learn again what that kind of love can do,” he said.
In the wake of the audience, Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, met separately with President Petro to reinforce the diplomatic channels that have long connected Colombia and the Holy See. According to a Vatican press release, both sides reaffirmed their mutual commitment to peacebuilding and dialogue, not only within Colombia but across the Latin American region.
Petro’s appeal was also deeply spiritual. He described a visit to the community of Sant’Egidio, whose church holds relics from the Holy Land. He reflected on the symbolic resonance of these artifacts amid current global violence, notably in Palestine, drawing a poetic line between past and present suffering, and between sacred history and contemporary geopolitics.
Before departing, the president extended a formal invitation to Pope Leo XIV to visit Colombia—an idea that clearly captivated his imagination. Petro proposed that the Pope travel not only to the capital, Bogotá, but also to two spiritually charged locations: the Chiribiquete National Park in the Amazon basin and Santa Marta, referred to by local Indigenous mamos as “the heart of the world.”
Chiribiquete, he noted, is “the first land to rise from the waters,” rich with prehistoric cave paintings and threatened by ecological devastation. “That place is proof that we were not discovered—we were already here,” he said, pushing back against colonial narratives.
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