Sunday, August 21, 2005

The Martyrs among us

There is a wonderful movie about missionaries about Archbishop Romero who was killed in San Salvador...

But I cannot watch it, because in one scene, it shows a priest with his small car full of people getting a lift from him. He is going down the road and is attacked, and all are killed.

Well, when I was in Africa, this happened to some of my friends (others were killed when their hospital was raided, another when she was walking in the bush a short distance from the hospital).

such things are still happening...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- The smaller of Colombia's two leftist rebel groups acknowledged Saturday that its fighters killed two Catholic priests earlier this week but said it was a mistake...

Alas, it was not a mistake, it was an all too common occurance...

...The ELN, founded in 1964 to push for social revolution, has been accused of numerous atrocities. The number of its fighters has dwindled in recent years to about 3,500 while the country's main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has about 13,000 fighters.

Clergy members regularly put themselves in harm's way to try to ease the suffering linked to the conflict, but have paid a heavy price: an archbishop, a bishop, 60 priests and three nuns have been killed in the past 20 years in Colombia, according to the Church.

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