On Monday, Sept. 26, Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, will attend the signing of the Peace Agreement between the Government of Colombia and the irregular Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC).
He will do so after attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Vatican’s spokesman, Greg Burke, confirmed. Colombian Foreign Relations Minister, Maria Angela Holguin had already anticipated the news, but the Holy See confirmed it yesterday.
Also attending the signing, in Cartagena, of the “End of the Conflict and the Building of a Stable and Lasting Peace,” will be 13 Presidents, Holguin said, adding that this historic event will be witnessed by the Presidents of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Paraguay.
Also present will be the Foreign Ministers of Norway and Sweden, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry; and the top representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Italian Federica Mogherini, as well as the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon; the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro; the President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim and the President of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Rodrigo Londono Echeverri (alias “Timochenko”), head of FARC, will sign the agreement. A religious ceremony will be held later in the church of Saint Peter Claver.
The signed agreement will have to be approved or rejected by Colombians in a referendum to be held on October 2, in regard to which the Church is not supporting a “yes” or a “no,” but inviting all to a broad debate so that the citizenry’s vote is duly informed.
Negotiations between the government and FARC ended on August 24. Three days later, the guerrilla group began the definitive cease-fire. On August 31, Pope Francis received with joy the news of the end of the negotiations and entrusted the results of the same to the protection of Mary, Queen of Peace.
In addition, Pope Francis expressed that he “entrusts the Peace Process in Colombia to the Virgin Mary.”
