Rebel leader Timochenko asks pontiff for forgiveness

Pope Francis urged Colombians sceptical of a peace deal with guerillas to be open to reconciliation with those who have repented, speaking hours after a top rebel leader asked the pontiff for forgiveness.

“Dear people of Colombia: do not be afraid of asking for forgiveness and offering it,” he said, at an emotional meeting that brought together victims of the 50-year civil war with former guerilla and paramilitary fighters.

Message of peace

The Pope is visiting Colombia with a message of national reconciliation, as the country tries to heal the wounds left by the conflict and bitter disagreements over a peace deal agreed last year.

Francis flew to the city of Villavicencio in Meta province, a vast cattle ranching area which was a hotbed of right-wing paramilitary and Marxist guerilla violence during a conflict with successive governments.

As he arrived, former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel leader Rodrigo Londono, now the head of a new political party, issued an open letter to the Pope asking for forgiveness or the suffering the group inflicted.

“Your repeated expressions about God’s infinite mercy move me to plead your forgiveness for any tears or pain that we have caused the people of Colombia,” Mr. Londono, who goes by the alias Timochenko, said in the letter.

The Pope’s afternoon prayer meeting in Villavicencio on Friday with about 6,000 survivors of the brutal conflict was the centerpiece of his five-day trip to overwhelmingly Catholic Colombia. He listened to personal accounts from four people, including a woman who joined a paramilitary group when she was 16, a former FARC guerilla, and two victims of violence between the guerrillas and paramilitary squads.