The Catholic Church targeted once again in Colombia: Msgr. Jorge Enrique Jimenez Carvajal (60), bishop of Zipaquirà and president of CELAM, (Latin American Episcopal Council), was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Farc) on 11 November. Kidnapped with him was also a priest who was accompanying him, Father Desiderio Orjuela (65). The bishop had gone to the Cundinamarca region to celebrate baptisms and first communions when he was seized by armed men. Once the alarm was given, the Colombian army began a huge operation to trace Bishop Jimenez and Father Orjuela. Meanwhile the Catholic Primate of Chile, Cardinal Francisco Errazuriz, has assumed, ad interim, the presidency of CELAM. It’s not the first time that leading Catholic prelates have been targeted by the Marxist guerrillas of the Farc. Since 1989 over 20 priests and two bishops have been killed by guerrillas, paramilitaries and bandits linked to drug trafficking. The archbishop of Cali, Msgr. Isaias Duarte, was killed in March. No sooner had he learnt of the kidnapping than John Paul II appealed for the release of the bishop and the priest. The Pope’s appeal was reiterated on 13 November, at the end of his traditional Wednesday audience. The news aroused numerous reactions also within the European Churches. The President of the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE), Bishop Amédée Grab of Chur (Switzerland), issued a statement on behalf of all the bishops of Europe, in which he expressed the deepest communion “with the Church of Colombia and CELAM as a whole”. COMECE, the Commission of the Episcopates of the European Community, in a message issued by its general secretary, Msgr. Noël Treanor, asked the leaders of the European Union, Romano Prodi, Javier Solana, Chris Patten and Per Stig Møller, “to do all in their power” to procure the bishop’s liberation. A condemnation of all acts of violence was also issued by the Spanish Episcopal Conference.
