EVERY FORM OF VIOLENCE DISHONORS HUMAN DIGNITY

VATICAN CITY, MAY 10, 2003 (VIS) - Archbishop Renato Martino, upon his arrival in Medellin, Colombia on May 8 to address the archdiocesan clergy, deplored "the execrable attack" that killed the governor of the Department of Antioquia, the minister of defense and eight other officials who had been prisoners of FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

In a communique dated May 8 and published today, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, repeated the words of John Paul II in a speech he gave to the Roman Curia in 2001: "Every form of terrorist violence dishonors the sanctity of God and the dignity of man."

"(Everyone) may count on my humble and constant prayer," he wrote, "by which I ask God to grant eternal repose to the souls of the victims of this act of terrorism, to give consolation to their families, to give freedom to those who are deprived of it and to show Colombia the paths that lead to forging a fraternal coexistence for the present and an ever more luminous and just future."

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