Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - "The Church in Colombia has always worked hard in the field of education providing a Christian education based on the values of the Gospel at all levels facilitated by the fact that Colombia has a population 90% Catholic" Bishop Jairo Jaramillo, Bishop of Santa Rosa said in a conversation with Fides.
All the Bishops of Colombia agree on the need to educate young generations to peace. "Colombia has lived in a situation of conflict for 40 years and this has had a strong impact on our young people " said Bishop Julio Cesar Vidal Ortiz, Bishop of Montería. "We have to plan long term activity working for a future of peace: we cannot not form new generations for war, we must educate them to peace and reconciliation. Moreover education must be integral, involving every aspect of the human person so as to form new Colombians with a mentality of peace, justice, truth and peaceful co-existence.”. Bishop Luis Alberto Parra Mora, Bishop of Mocoa-Sibundoy says recalling another significant aspect of the Church’s commitment to education in the Colombian context: efforts to rescue and rehabilitate child soldiers and to prevent the recruiting of more children.
Bishop Jaramillo stresses the importance of this work at the university level because Colombia has at least ten Catholic Universities opened by dioceses. Bishop Jaramillo himself has just opened one. "This is a virtual university - he told Fides - and it is the only one of its kind in the country. The idea of University via the Internet is being promoted not only in my diocese but in various other regions. It is an experience at which we have worked for 7 years. At the moment there are 2,000 students and 10 university programmes which cover 200 civic communities. We have just opened a school of education which is partly virtual. This is a challenge for the Church - continua Mons. Jaramillo -. The Pope speaks continually of new pulpits and the Church in Colombia strives to use the new means of communication to carry the values of the Gospel to Colombians and the rest of the world”. (R.G.) (Agenzia Fides 7/7/2004; righe 24 parole 355)
