Pontiff to meet released hostage Ingrid Betancourt

BY CAROL GLATZ
BENEDICT XVI is to meet released hostage Ingrid Betancourt as soon as his schedule allows, the Vatican has announced.
, Miss Betancourt was freed in a surprise military operation last week after spending six years being held hostage by Colombian rebels. She was abducted in 2002 while campaigning to become the country's president.
The Pope expressed joy upon hearing that the hostages had been freed.
Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said the liberation of 15 hostages from the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or PARC, was also "a sign of hope" for peace in a country that has been plagued by violence for decades.
The Pope "is happy about this very wonderful news" he said last week.
Colombian soldiers disguised as rebels tricked local FARC commanders into letting the hostages be airlifted in an unmarked helicopter.
Among those liberated were three American contractors who had been held by FARC since 2003. They had been captured when their drug surveillance plane went down in rebel-held jungle.
In addition to freeing 11 Colombian soldiers and police some of whom had been held for 12 years the military operation liberated former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.
Pope Benedict had met with Miss Betancoun's mother in February at the Vatican and repeatedly had called for the release of all those held hostage in Colombia.
"This liberation is also a positive response to those hopes expressed by the Pope, the bishops, the Church," Fr Lombardi said.
The hostage rescue came a day after Pope Benedict launched an appeal for an end to the violence, kidnappings and extortion plaguing the country.
"I fervently pray to God that these situations which have caused so much suffering end as soon as possible and that a stable and just peace may reign in Colombia in an atmosphere of hope and wellbeing," he said in a video message to Colombia's bishops.
The video message was recorded at the end of June and broadcast on July 1 to Colombian bishops attending the 85th plenary assembly of the Colombian bishops' conference in Bogota.
The Pope praised the bishops for their efforts in working for peace in Colombia.
In a July 2 statement Archbishop Luis Castro Quiroga of Tunja, president of Colombia's bishops' conference, urged FARC to "study with much seriousness the possibility of dialoguing with the government".