Colombia mourns death of Pope Francis

Colombia’s Foreign Ministry expressed its condolences for the death of Pope Francis, who died earlier on Monday.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry stressed that the Argentine pope was “the first Latin American leader in the history of the Catholic Church to occupy the papacy”  and was an outspoken supporter of Colombia’s ongoing peace process.

In Colombia, we remember with deep affection your consideration when you visited us in September 2017, a gesture that reaffirmed your unconditional support for our path towards reconciliation and peace. “The search for peace is a work that is always open, a task that does not give truce and that demands the commitment of all,” was his message to our efforts in the process. This is his legacy to Colombia that will endure in every actor of reconciliation, love and compassion.

Foreign Ministry

The pope’s death will likely affect a large number of people in Colombia where 78% of the population identifies as Catholic, according to a 2021 poll.

Among those Catholics is President Gustavo Petro, who mourned the death of the religious leader on social media platform X.

I have lost a great friend. I feel a little lonely. He understood perfectly his role as a spiritual leader in the great struggle for life. In the greedy causes of extinction. His encyclicals will go down in history if we are able to build a humanity that defends its greatest good: Life.

President Gustavo Petro