Drug trafficking fuels Colombian violence, pope tells bishops

Published: 2004-10-01

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Drug trafficking has led to a debasement of people and is fueling much of the violence and turmoil in Colombia, said Pope John Paul II. The continuous "attacks on life, freedom and human dignity" throughout Colombia suggest that people have become "cheap merchandise," the pope told a group of Colombian bishops Sept. 30 at the end of their five-year "ad limina" visits to the Vatican. Heads of dioceses are required to make the visits every five years to report on the status of their dioceses. The increase in the number of kidnappings in this South American country "shows, once again, the perversion which human baseness can reach when moral perspective is lost to evil interests and when the most fundamental rights of man are not respected," he said. "Many of these evils find their origin in drug trafficking," causing "numerous negative consequences in all spheres of society," he added. For the past four decades, Colombia has been locked in a deadly civil war that involves government troops, paramilitaries and rebels. Insurgent groups have turned to the drugs trade and kidnapping for ransom to fund their efforts.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .