God's Diplomats by Victor Gaetan

Author:Victor Gaetan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2021-05-24T00:00:00+00:00

A PATRON SAINT’S BLESSING WAS NOT ENOUGH

Santos needed a very big show of support for the treaty, so he invited a global audience to a signing ceremony on September 26, the eve of the feast day of Colombia’s patron, St. Peter Claver, SJ. The celebration unfolded in Cartagena in front of a church named after the saint. For forty years (1614–1654), this Spanish Jesuit priest ministered to slaves arriving at the port in Cartagena from Africa. He met slave ships and cared for the sick in the hold, rescued thousands, and visited and served captives on plantations, refusing to stay in the homes of owners.89 Santos called Peter Claver “a great champion of human rights” as he explicitly linked the signing event to the saint’s legacy.90

The president’s language on the challenges facing Colombia was strongly informed by Christian concepts, especially the central role of forgiveness: “Making peace is much more difficult than making war because you need to change sentiments of people, people who have suffered, to try to persuade them to forgive,” he explained.

On the festive signing day at noon, before a sea of 2,500 people dressed in white—including fifteen presidents, three former presidents, and twenty-seven foreign ministers—Cardinal Pietro Parolin offered Mass at the altar where St. Peter Claver’s body is entombed. Speaking Spanish, the Holy See’s secretary of state continued the focus on victims that characterized the Church’s mantra during negotiations: “Colombia should begin to ease the pain of so many of its people by working to build a better future and by rebuilding the dignity of those who have suffered,” he said.91

Parolin assured the assembly that Francis followed “the search for harmony and reconciliation” closely; the Holy Father “encouraged these efforts without taking part in the concrete solutions,” he explained, because ultimately the decisions rest with Colombians. President Santos offered a prayer during Mass as well: “Oh God, Father and Lord of Colombia, we grant to always be in your hands and fight together to make us one family, in which no one feels alone and excluded.”92

With the entire nation following events on live TV, the Mass for peace served to spiritually ground the day’s proceedings in the will of God. Later on the plaza, the assembly witnessed the president and FARC’s Marxist leader Rodrigo Londoño (aka Timochenko) sign the accord with a pen made from a bullet inscribed, “Bullets wrote our past. Education, our future.” Londoño gave an emotional speech apologizing for the pain FARC had caused.93 King Juan Carlos of Spain, UN leader Ban Ki-Moon, and US secretary of state John Kerry were among the witnesses.

The day was such a national high, everyone expected the popular vote, held six days later, to continue the positive momentum. As the New York Times reported, “Polls indicate [the referendum] will coast to victory by a wide double-digit margin.”94

But it failed. With anemic participation below 40 percent of eligible voters, “No” received 50.22 percent and “Yes” received 49.78 percent. The Uribeled campaign against the treaty capitalized on both the

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