These were the themes of the Colombian bishops' meeting with Pope Francis in Rome

At the Episcopal Conference in Rome, Colombian bishops spoke with Pope Francis about the crisis in the Pacific, drug trafficking and elections.

In dialogue with La W, Monsignor Luis José Rueda Aparicio, archbishop of Bogotá and president of the organization, since the press conference the Pontifical Commission for Latin America on the Vatican's Via della Conciliazione told the issues of the meeting.

One of the central issues was concern about the human rights situation in Colombia, which the Supreme Pontiff knew in depth at the meeting that took about 40 minutes in Rome.

The delegation that met was composed of the President of the National Church, Monsignor Luis José Rueda Aparicio; the Vice President, Monsignor Ómar Sánchez, and the Secretary General, Monsignor Luis Manuel Alí Herrera.

As for political news, he said that the visit strengthened them to dialogue with each of the candidates for the upcoming presidential elections.

Finally, he spoke on the case of the activists who broke into the Primate Cathedral. “They are not well seen, but we are based on the main mandate and we are willing to arm without hatred,” he concluded.

In the midst of the political race ahead of the presidential elections, all the actions of the candidates for office generate reactions in the country. In the early morning of this Wednesday, March 16 (10:00 in the morning at the Vatican), candidate Rodolfo Hernández met with Pope Francis.

After the former mayor of Bucaramanga sent, at the end of last year, a letter to the Vatican requesting an audience with the Supreme Pontiff, he received it for 20 minutes in his office, a meeting of which there was no photographic record. In dialogue with Caracol Radio, after leaving the meeting, the candidate revealed what they talked about and the details that brought him.

“We have just left the meeting with the Pope, we talked about what is happening in Colombia, about football,” said the candidate for the station in the early hours of Wednesday. He also noted that he brought Pope Francis a straw hat made in Colombia, the book of San Lorenzo de Almagro issued in 1904, and a pound of coffee Mesa de los Santos.

He also brought him a Colombian hammock, but not for the religious, but for him to send it to his sister in Argentina. “We have some meetings and visits to link some 200 Colombian children to football schools with Real Madrid,” the candidate added about his agenda in Europe.

“I told him what is happening in Colombia that the poor will be poorer every day if they continue to vote for them. We talk that Argentina is something similar to what Colombia is, among other issues,” he stressed on the Hernández station.

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