EUROPE/GERMANY - The Church in Germany organises solidarity for victims of armed conflict in Colombia: Catholic Bishops of Germany launch Advent Campaign in aid of Colombia

Aachen (Fides Service) - The Conference of German Catholic Bishops has launched an Advent/Christmas Solidarity Campaign for Churches in Latin America. This year’s collection of funds will go to help victims of the armed conflict in Colombia which has sown death in this Latin American nation for 40 years. The Advent/Christmas Campaign 2004 was inaugurated in Aachen Cathedral with a solemn Mass. The Campaign programme includes about 200 initiatives, concerts, conferences, debates all focused on the difficult and tragic situation in Colombia. A special nation wide collection will be taken on Christmas Eve. Special guests at some events will include Archbishop Luís Augusto Castro Quiroga of Tunja and Bishop Jorge Jiménez Carvajal of Zipaquirà, who, like many others, lived the experience of being taken hostage by the guerrillas when he was President of the Latin American Council of Bishops’ Conferences CELAM. The Colombian Bishops will explain the activity of the local Church’s Facilitating Commission for the Humanitarian Agreement with the FARC guerrillas, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. (R.Z.) (Agenzia Fides 14/12/2004, righe 14, parole 172)