(This declaration was witnessed by 2 members of the grassroots community of St Thomas Aquinas of Madrid)
“Now is the moment for the Catholic Church and the Pope to ask for forgiveness”. This statement is contained in the document in which a thousand grassroots Christians, as members of the Catholic Church (CC), asked the victims for forgiveness, on 3rd September 2017 in Bogota, for the participation of their Church thoughout decades in the conflict in Colombia that caused about 300.000 deaths over the last 50 years. In it they demand that the Bishops' Conference asks for forgiveness in a nationwide gesture, as an example of reconciliation.
“With sincere grief -they state-but also with the hope that in our Church in this moment of grace the evangelical force of the “metanoia” or profound conversion is active, WE ASK FOR FORGIVENESS to God and our victims whilst sharing our longing for a more humane future.”
What are the reasons for which the Church must ask for forgiveness? Several investigations have documented grave actions and responsiblities of the CC., which can be summed up in 7 deadly sins:
1ST SIN: CONNIVANCE OF THE MILITARY DIOCESE. The obligation of religious assistance to the Military Forces and the National Police has led to situations in which many victims, especially peasants and male and female popular leaders, who suffered torture in military units, had to see how the Church turned its back on them and, in many cases, blessed without any qualms those who committed the crimes.
scandal of the wrongly named “falsos positivos”, with more than 5700 persons assasinated, who were presented as killed in combat, counted with the collaboration of bishops and priests, especially in Santander and Antioquia, who, invoking their “duty to give spiritual advice to the army”, supported the activities of paramilitary organizations.
2ND SIN: IDEOLOGICAL PERSECUTION OF LIBERALS. Colombia lived a bloody political violence against followers of the Liberal Party between 1899 and 1902. The figure of nearly one hundred thousand deaths is estimated. At that time the CC took sides inciting people to be “good sons of the Church, by being anti-Liberal”. Priests and bishops like Mons. Ezequiel Moreno promoted violence throughout the country, because, according to them, Liberalism was sinful. “It would be good if Catholics took up their rifles”, proclaimed Monsignor Moreno who, however, was canonized by John Paul II, in October 1992, as the saint of the 5th Centenary of the Conquest of America.