Priests face death in Colombia

Jeremy McDermott reports from Bogota on the priestly victims of civil unrest
FR ALFONS° Gomez joked that he was sleeping with the nuns in the southern town of Puerto Asis. But the death threats that sent him scurrying into the convent as he prepared to flee the area were not so funny.
Accused of being a leftwing sympathiser, right wing paramilitaries kept ringing the parish house telling him to "get out of town or die". He got out of town.
Colombia is one of the most violent places in the world, with more than 26,000 homicides registered last year. It is also one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a priest, and the Church has not escaped the civil conflict as it enters its 37th year.
Since 1998, 21 priests and a nun have been killed in Colombia, 10 by right-wing paramilitaries, 12 by leftwing guerrillas. The escalating attacks on priests prompted the Colombian National Conference of Churches to pronounce at the end of last year that "being a priest in Colombia has turned into a job of the highest risk".
In 1998 guerrillas from the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) walked into a church in Puerto Caicedo in the southern province of Putumayo and calmly shot Fr Alcides Jimenez to death as he said Mass. The Marxist guerrillas had not liked his preaching.
Rank is no protection. In 1998 the Bishop of Arauca, Jestis Jaramillo, was assassinated by rebels of the National Liberation Army (ELN).
But if the Catholic Church has fared badly, Protestant pastors and missionaries have suffered even more. During the same period 59 pastors were killed. A FARC commander in the southern province of Meta was reported as saying that the 'Protestant pastors are enemies of the revolution. They must all die".
But it is not only murder that priests have to fear. Colombia is the kidnap capital of the world, with an average of one abduction every three hours last year.
Fr Guillermo Correa, 68, comes from a rich family. He had retired from running his parish in the norther province of Antioquia and was looking forward to a contemplative retirement. He was kidnapped over six months ago by the FARC. They are demanding a £30,000 ransom for his release.
Political kidnapping is also common. Mgr Jose de Jesus Quintero, the Bishop of Tibu in the eastern Province of Norte de Santander is an expert in such abduction. He has been taken twice, the first time in November 24, 1997 by the ELN, the second in August 15. 1999 by rebels of the Peoples Liberation Army (EPL). The left-wing rebels were annoyed at the bishop's constant denunciations of their atrocities. He was lucky to he released alive, twice lucky.
Before murdering priests, the warring factions usually send death threats. Most flee after receiving the first warning. Some are stubborn.
Church buildings are not sacrosanct either. In 1999, the Church of Our Lady of Chiquinquira in the central Tolima province was reduced to rubble when FARC rebels attacked the town.
The 16th century church was regarded as one of Colombia's architectural jewels, and had survived innumerable earthquakes and natural disasters. It could not withstand the explosive-filled gas cylinders the guerrillas used to blow up the town.
But the Church has not shied away from denouncing the growing wave of atroci
ties committed by all sides in this bloody war. When ELN rebels burst into a church service in the city of Cali in May 1999, and kidnapped 150 people, the congregation including the priest, the city's archbishop, Isaias Duarte Cancino, excommunicated the entire rebel company that carried out the operation.
One of the most respected human rights group here that charts abuses is the Jesuit
CINEP foundation in Bogota.
You might be forgiven for thinking the offices look like Hitler's bunker, but then death threats to the organisation are so common, that they are simply logged down for posterity.
For Mgr Luis Augusto Castro, Archbishop of Ilmja, the attacks on the Church are just another symptom of the barbarity of the Colombian conflict.
"It is natural that the preachers, priests and bishops should share the suffering of the war along with all other Colombians, but we reject the actions against ministers of God, Catholic or Protestant, against anyone of a religious nature. It is yet another degradation of the war when representatives of God are targeted," he said.