A Columbian bishop has offered the aid of his diocese in searching for a missing journalist.
Salud Hernández-Mora, a journalist with El Tiempo newspaper, has not been heard of since May 21; military and police searches have found no trace of her.
“We are very familiar with the territories, places and paths, we know the people who live there and in this sense there is already an available network from the moment we mobilise,” Tibù’s Bishop Omar Alberto Sánchez Cubillo OP said in a radio interview.
The bishop added that he was awaiting the release of two other journalists, Diego Pablos and Carlos Melo, who were also kidnapped a few days ago. They were to be delivered to the parish priest and the regional commission in Filogringo, he said.
The kidnapping of journalists has been on the rise in Columbia in recent weeks, with the former president, Alvaro Uribe, attributing these to the so-called National Liberation Army.
Time for an ‘outward-looking Europe’
European leaders should join forces with ordinary people, civil society organisations and churches to build an inclusive and outward-looking Europe, the Caritas Europa Regional Conference has urged. Following the Lourdes conference of more than 300 people from 42 countries, Msgr Luc Van Looy, President of Caritas Europa, said, “Europe needs a fresh start, a new pan-European project that holds solidarity, fraternity and the dignity of people at its core.”
Acknowledging that Europe is increasingly challenged by rising poverty, social injustice, conflicts, xenophobia and nationalism, the assembled representatives of Catholic social action groups called on European governments to strengthen the role of the Council of Europe in ensuring that social rights are respected.