Pope Urges Land Reform in Address to Colombians

Pope John Paul II today called for land reform in Colombia, a country where left-wing guerrillas cite the unequal distribution of land as one of the reasons for their fight against the government.

Addressing about 150,000 people, most of them peasants dressed in the traditional poncho of the Colombian highlands, the pontiff stressed the key role of agricultural workers in this predominantly agricultural country of 28 million people.

“Because of (the peasants’) dignity as people and because of the work they do, their legitimate rights must be protected and they must be guaranteed legal forms of land ownership . . . ,” the pontiff said.

In Colombia, wealthy landowners hold almost 90% of all arable land, while more than 1.3 million peasants eke out a precarious existence as day laborers or subsistence farmers.

Left-wing guerrilla groups say the absence of serious efforts to narrow the vast gap between rich and poor in Colombia leaves them no choice but armed struggle.

Rebels have been fighting a succession of governments here for three decades, the longest guerrilla conflict in Latin America.

The Pope’s visit to Chiquinquira provided the spiritual high point of his weeklong tour of Colombia. The colonial town high in the Andes is the home of Colombia’s patron saint, the Virgin of Chiquinquira.

After addressing the peasants at the newly opened John Paul Park, the pontiff traveled to the Basilica of Chiquinquira to consecrate a painting of the virgin.

According to a 400-year-old legend, an abandoned painting of the Virgin Mary--a rendering in vegetable dye on a crude canvas--was miraculously restored in 1586 through the prayers of Maria Ramos, an immigrant from Seville, Spain.

Pope asks rebels to end fighting. Page 4.