VILLAVICENCIO, Colombia (Reuters) - Pope Francis urged Colombians skeptical of a peace deal with guerrillas to be open to reconciliation with those who have repented, speaking hours after a top rebel leader asked the pontiff for forgiveness.

Pope Francis attends National Reconciliation Encounter at 'Las Malocas' Park in Villavicencio, Colombia, September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

“Dear people of Colombia: do not be afraid of asking for forgiveness and offering it,” he said, at an emotional meeting that brought together victims of the 50-year civil war with former guerrilla and paramilitary fighters.

The Argentine pope, leader of the world’s Roman Catholics, is visiting Colombia with a message of national reconciliation, as the country tries to heal the wounds left by the conflict and bitter disagreements over a peace deal agreed last year.

Francis flew to the city of Villavicencio in Meta province, a vast cattle ranching area which was a hotbed of right-wing paramilitary and Marxist guerrilla violence during a conflict with successive governments.

As he arrived, former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel leader Rodrigo Londono, now the head of a new political party, issued an open letter to the pope asking for forgiveness for the suffering the group inflicted. [nL2N1LP0UZ]

“Your repeated expressions about God’s infinite mercy move me to plead your forgiveness for any tears or pain that we have caused the people of Colombia,” Londono, who goes by the alias Timochenko, said in the letter.

Tens of thousands of ecstatic people in this humid area of savanna and shantytowns packed the roads as the pope, riding in the front seat of a simple car, passed by on Friday morning after his plane arrived from the capital Bogota.

The pope’s afternoon prayer meeting in Villavicencio with about 6,000 survivors of the brutal conflict was the centerpiece of his five-day trip to overwhelmingly Catholic Colombia.

He listened to personal accounts from four people, including a woman who joined a paramilitary group when she was 16, a former FARC guerrilla, and two victims of violence between the guerrillas and paramilitary squads.

One of the victims, Pastora Mira García, told how she lost her father, husband and two children in the conflict. To great applause she urged forgiveness to “break the cycle of violence” and said she could now “name the unnamable and forgive the unforgivable”.

On the wall of the stage was a destroyed statue of Jesus Christ recovered from a church attacked by the FARC in 2002 in the rain forest village of Bojaya. About 80 people were killed as they sought refuge from rebel bombings inside the humble church.

The plaster figure, without arms or legs, has become an enduring symbol of the war.

“As we look at it, we remember not only what happened on that day, but also the immense suffering, the many deaths and broken lives, and all the blood spilled in Colombia these past decades,” the pope said.

DEEPLY POLARIZED

Conflict between right-wing paramilitary squads, Marxist rebels, and government forces since the 1960s has killed more than 220,000 people and left millions more displaced.

Now Colombians are deeply polarized as they prepare to receive 7,000 former fighters, such as Londono, into society.

Many are furious that under last year’s peace deal, FARC leaders accused of kidnapping and murder will avoid jail sentences and may receive seats in congress as members of a new political party. [nL1N1DN22O]

Francis addressed this hesitancy head-on.

“Undoubtedly, it is a challenge for each of us to trust that those who inflicted suffering on communities and on a whole country can take a step forward,” he said.

Slideshow (15 Images)

“Let us heal that pain and welcome every person who has committed offences, who admits their failures, is repentant and truly wants to make reparation.”

As he left Villavicencio, he stopped to pray at the Reconciliation Cross, a memorial to survivors and those killed during the war, and planted a tree as a symbol of peace.

Earlier, Francis celebrated a Mass for hundreds of thousands of people on a muddy field to beatify Pedro Maria Ramirez, a priest who was killed in 1948 during a period of political violence known as “La Violencia,” and Bishop Jesus Emilio Jaramillo, killed in 1989 by the National Liberation Army (ELN) for suspected collaboration with the military.</s>Pope Francis will use his first full day in Colombia to send a message of unity, planting a tree of peace and saying a Mass to preach reconciliation in a nation bitterly divided after five decades of war.

BOGOTA: Pope Francis will use his first full day in Colombia to send a message of unity, planting a tree of peace and saying a Mass to preach reconciliation in a nation bitterly divided after five decades of war.

Francis received a tumultuous welcome on Wednesday afternoon. Screaming crowds mobbed the popemobile carrying the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics as it made its way slowly from the airport to the Vatican Embassy in central Bogota.

Faithful threw flowers and held up children to be kissed.

"Don't let anyone steal your happiness, don't let anyone steal your hope," Francis told young people outside the embassy, his residence during the trip.

Francis, making his 20th foreign trip since becoming pontiff in 2013 and his fifth to his native Latin America, will spend all of Thursday in Bogota and then make day visits to the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena before leaving for Rome on Sunday night.

The Argentine pope will hold private meetings with President Juan Manuel Santos and Catholic bishops. He will also meet bishops from Venezuela, which has gone through months of protests against President Nicolas Maduro, who has tightened his hold on power amid an escalating economic crisis.

Francis will encourage reconciliation for Colombians as they prepare to receive 7,000 former FARC rebels into society and aim to repair divisions after a war that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions over five decades.

During his stay in Bogota - whose theme is "Builders of Peace, Promoters of Life" - Francis will visit the colonial cathedral to pray before a painting of Our Lady of Chiquinquira, the patron saint of overwhelmingly Catholic Colombia.

The afternoon Mass in the capital's sprawling Simon Bolivar Park is expected to draw more than a million people.

Former fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, now a civilian political party, hope to use words instead of weapons to change Colombia.

But many are furious that under the 2016 peace deal FARC leaders accused of kidnapping, displacements and murder will avoid jail sentences and instead may receive seats in congress.

Anger over the accord has not dampened enthusiasm for the pope's visit. Tens of thousands are expected to pack the main cathedral square carrying rosaries, waving flags and wearing T-shirts and baseball caps bearing Francis' image.

People were already saving spaces along the route to Bolivar Park, nearly 24 hours before the Mass was due to start.

"It's fantastic, we're so happy, he radiates love, mercy, compassion, joy, peace for the Colombian people," said economist Maria Claudia Garavito, 57.

"The important thing is that people, politicians and civil society disarm our hearts so that we can move forward for the union and reconciliation of the country."</s>BOGOTA: Pope Francis urged Colombians on Wednesday (Sep 7) to reject "vengeance" for the sufferings of their civil conflict and promote forgiveness to overcome lingering resentments as the country seeks lasting peace.

Cheering crowds greeted the 80-year-old Argentine pontiff as he prayed for the country to heal the wounds of war - though some warned that forgiveness was hard after so much violence.

Francis spoke alongside President Juan Manuel Santos, who has overseen a controversial peace deal with the FARC rebel force and a ceasefire with the last active guerrilla group, the ELN.

"The steps taken give rise to hope, in the conviction that seeking peace is an open-ended endeavor, a task which does not relent, which demands the commitment of everyone," Francis said.

"May this determination help us flee from the temptation to vengeance and the satisfaction of short-term partisan interests."

Santos won a Nobel Peace Prize last year for his part in the accord that has seen the FARC disarm and transform into a political party.

It was a key step toward ending a many-sided territorial and ideological conflict that has left 260,000 people confirmed dead, 60,000 unaccounted for and seven million displaced.

But the peace process has been fraught with division. Critics say the FARC rebels got off too lightly, with amnesties and alternative sentences.

"This process is a lie ... I believe in God, but I do not need intermediaries," said Bogota resident Luis Eduardo Martinez, 63, commenting on the pope's visit.



"We who saw so many victims die have not lost our resentment. I hope God will allow me to let that resentment go, but it is still there."



In a balcony address later to crowds of young people near Bogota's cathedral, Francis urged them to "dream big" for the country's future.

"Your youthfulness ... makes you capable of something very difficult in life: forgiving. Forgiving those who have hurt us," he said.



Francis last year tried unsuccessfully to mediate between Santos and the lead opponent of the FARC accord, conservative leader Alvaro Uribe.



Uribe wrote a Twitter message welcoming "His Holiness Francis" to Colombia on Wednesday, but without commenting on the peace process.



FARC leader Rodrigo Londono also hailed the pope on Thursday, tweeting his thanks to Francis "for supporting the peace and defending social and environmental justice."



Colombians narrowly rejected the accord in a referendum last year. A reworked version was later pushed through Congress.



Santos thanked Francis for coming to "encourage us to take the first step toward reconciliation," in a speech alongside the pope on Thursday.



"There is no use in ending a war if we still see each other as enemies," Santos added.



After talks with Santos at the presidential palace, Francis visited Bogota cathedral and met with bishops.

He posed for selfies with worshipers and prayed before the image of the Virgin of Chiquinquira, Colombia's patron saint, which was flown to Bogota by helicopter for the occasion.

Francis was scheduled later to celebrate a mass for thousands of worshippers in Simon Bolivar Park. He will then make daily excursions by plane to the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena.



In Villavicencio, he will beatify two Catholic priests killed during the conflict and pray for reconciliation with victims of violence, former guerrilla members and ex-military fighters.

"The more demanding the path that leads to peace and understanding, the greater must be our efforts to acknowledge each other, to heal wounds, to build bridges, to strengthen relationships and support one another," Francis said Thursday.

He then headed inside for private talks with Santos.</s>BOGOTA, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Pope Francis will use his first full day in Colombia to send a message of unity, planting a tree of peace and saying a Mass to preach reconciliation in a nation bitterly divided after five decades of war.

Francis received a tumultuous welcome on Wednesday afternoon. Screaming crowds mobbed the popemobile carrying the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics as it made its way slowly from the airport to the Vatican Embassy in central Bogota.

Faithful threw flowers and held up children to be kissed.

"Don't let anyone steal your happiness, don't let anyone steal your hope," Francis told young people outside the embassy, his residence during the trip.

Francis, making his 20th foreign trip since becoming pontiff in 2013 and his fifth to his native Latin America, will spend all of Thursday in Bogota and then make day visits to the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena before leaving for Rome on Sunday night.

The Argentine pope will hold private meetings with President Juan Manuel Santos and Catholic bishops. He will also meet bishops from Venezuela, which has gone through months of protests against President Nicolas Maduro, who has tightened his hold on power amid an escalating economic crisis.

Francis will encourage reconciliation for Colombians as they prepare to receive 7,000 former FARC rebels into society and aim to repair divisions after a war that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions over five decades.

During his stay in Bogota - whose theme is "Builders of Peace, Promoters of Life" - Francis will visit the colonial cathedral to pray before a painting of Our Lady of Chiquinquira, the patron saint of overwhelmingly Catholic Colombia.

The afternoon Mass in the capital's sprawling Simon Bolivar Park is expected to draw more than a million people.

Former fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, now a civilian political party, hope to use words instead of weapons to change Colombia.

But many are furious that under the 2016 peace deal FARC leaders accused of kidnapping, displacements and murder will avoid jail sentences and instead may receive seats in congress.

Anger over the accord has not dampened enthusiasm for the pope's visit. Tens of thousands are expected to pack the main cathedral square carrying rosaries, waving flags and wearing T-shirts and baseball caps bearing Francis' image.

People were already saving spaces along the route to Bolivar Park, nearly 24 hours before the Mass was due to start.

"It's fantastic, we're so happy, he radiates love, mercy, compassion, joy, peace for the Colombian people," said economist Maria Claudia Garavito, 57.

"The important thing is that people, politicians and civil society disarm our hearts so that we can move forward for the union and reconciliation of the country." (Reporting by Helen Murphy; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)</s>Pope Francis urged young Colombians on Thursday to take the lead in promoting forgiveness to help their country heal from a half-century of conflict, saying they should "look to the future without the burden of hatred" that their elders often carry.

From the halls of the presidential palace to the green hills of Bogota's Simon Bolivar Park, Francis brought his message of reconciliation to a country still bitterly divided over the peace deal with leftist rebels that is seeking to end Latin America's longest-running armed rebellion. And he demanded that its leaders now address the gross inequalities that sparked the conflict to begin with.

"Let us not forget that inequality is the root of social ills," he told a crowd at Bogota's presidential palace that included disabled children and soldiers with amputated limbs.

While his appeal for forgiveness may be hard for some to swallow, Francis was nevertheless given a rock star's welcome on his first full day in Colombia. Young choir members abandoned their positions in the palace courtyard and threw their arms around him as he arrived. In Bogota's main Plaza Bolivar, thousands of young people interrupted him repeatedly with cheers. And officials estimated 1.3 million people flocked to Bogota's main park for his open-air Mass, far more than the 700,000 expected.

History's first Latin American pope took the crowds, interruptions, protocol hiccups and security breaches in stride, seemingly relishing in the adoration of one of the continent's most staunchly Roman Catholic countries.

His message though was stern, urging the country's elite and ordinary to resist the temptation for vengeance, the "corrupting darkness" of self-interest, and instead build bridges to help the nation heal.

"The solitude of always being at loggerheads has been familiar for decades, and its smell has lingered for a hundred years," he said, alluding to the most famous work of Colombia's Nobel laureate, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. "We do not want any type of violence whatsoever to restrict or destroy one more life."

One year after the government signed a peace accord with rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known by its Spanish acronym FARC, the guns have fallen silent and 7,000 rebels are transitioning back to civilian life. But Colombians remain badly divided over the accord, with conservative opponents seeing it as too generous for the guerrillas who were behind scores of atrocities during the conflict.

In all, the fighting left more than 250,000 people dead, 60,000 missing and millions more displaced.

Francis is expected to press his call for forgiveness further on Friday when he travels to Villavincencio, south of Bogota, where he is to preside over a meeting of reconciliation between victims of the conflict and those who victimized them.

"It's a great message for all of the country, especially because of the moment we are living in," said Maria Juliana Higuera, one of more than 20,000 people who packed Bogota's central Plaza Bolivar for a papal blessing. "It's very important to us as Catholics."

Francis appealed to Colombia's youth to take the lead in promoting forgiveness, saying young people more than adults are able to "leave behind what has hurt us and look to the future without the burden of hatred."

"You make us see the wider world which stands before us, the whole of Colombia that wishes to grow and continue its development," he said.

Looking ahead, Francis insisted that Colombia now needed to enact "just laws" to resolve the structural causes of poverty and inequality to "overcome the conflicts that have torn apart this nation for decades."

The FARC formed as a Marxist army in the mid-1960s to overthrow Colombia's economic and social system and open the way to redistributing land.

While the first year of the accord's implementation has seen the FARC disarm, it also has been marked by the state's failures to bring services to hard-to-reach communities where the government has historically had little presence and where rebels are beginning a new chapter as civilians. Former guerrillas arriving at many of the 26 demobilization zones found little more than fields of mud, and months later many remain living in tents rather than the buildings with running water and electricity that the government promised.

Colombia is the most unequal country in terms of land distribution in Latin America, itself the worst region in the world. Large agricultural holdings of more than 500 hectares represent around 0.4 per cent of all farms in Colombia but control more than 67 per cent of the productive land, according to an Oxfam report last year.

The peace deal and an earlier land reform are supposed to redistribute the land and compensate victims driven from their homesteads by illegal armed groups. But authorities overseeing the process have been slow to hand out titles, and peasanto farmers in far-flung regions face numerous threats asserting their rights. Last year, 59 human rights defenders – many of them land rights activists – were killed yet only a handful of their murders ever solved, according to the United Nations.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who won last year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the conflict, urged Colombians to let go of lingering resentments.

"Silencing the guns is worthless if we remain armed in our hearts," he told the crowd. "Ending the war is worthless if we still see each other as enemies."

In between his main events Thursday, Francis met with bishops from around the region, including his first encounter with clergy from neighbouring Venezuela who are looking for the pope to demand accountability from their country's socialist government and deliver a message of hope to that nation torn by political and economic turmoil.

Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, archbishop of Caracas, said the situation was "truly desperate," with people eating garbage and dying for lack of medicine. "So we want to remind the pope of this again and especially the serious political situation because the government is doing everything possible to establish a state system, totalitarian and Marxist," he said.</s>Pope urges skeptical Colombians to accept peace with guerrillas

By Philip Pullella and Nelson Bocanegra

VILLAVICENCIO, Colombia (Reuters) – Pope Francis urged Colombians skeptical of a peace deal with guerrillas to be open to reconciliation with those who have repented, speaking hours after a top rebel leader asked the pontiff for forgiveness.

“Dear people of Colombia: do not be afraid of asking for forgiveness and offering it,” he said, at an emotional meeting that brought together victims of the 50-year civil war with former guerrilla and paramilitary fighters.

The Argentine pope, leader of the world’s Roman Catholics, is visiting Colombia with a message of national reconciliation, as the country tries to heal the wounds left by the conflict and bitter disagreements over a peace deal agreed last year.

Francis flew to the city of Villavicencio in Meta province, a vast cattle ranching area which was a hotbed of right-wing paramilitary and Marxist guerrilla violence during a conflict with successive governments.

As he arrived, former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel leader Rodrigo Londono, now the head of a new political party, issued an open letter to the pope asking for forgiveness for the suffering the group inflicted. [nL2N1LP0UZ]

“Your repeated expressions about God’s infinite mercy move me to plead your forgiveness for any tears or pain that we have caused the people of Colombia,” Londono, who goes by the alias Timochenko, said in the letter.

Tens of thousands of ecstatic people in this humid area of savanna and shantytowns packed the roads as the pope, riding in the front seat of a simple car, passed by on Friday morning after his plane arrived from the capital Bogota.

The pope’s afternoon prayer meeting in Villavicencio with about 6,000 survivors of the brutal conflict was the centerpiece of his five-day trip to overwhelmingly Catholic Colombia.

He listened to personal accounts from four people, including a woman who joined a paramilitary group when she was 16, a former FARC guerrilla, and two victims of violence between the guerrillas and paramilitary squads.

One of the victims, Pastora Mira García, told how she lost her father, husband and two children in the conflict. To great applause she urged forgiveness to “break the cycle of violence” and said she could now “name the unnamable and forgive the unforgivable”.

On the wall of the stage was a destroyed statue of Jesus Christ recovered from a church attacked by the FARC in 2002 in the rain forest village of Bojaya. About 80 people were killed as they sought refuge from rebel bombings inside the humble church.

The plaster figure, without arms or legs, has become an enduring symbol of the war.

“As we look at it, we remember not only what happened on that day, but also the immense suffering, the many deaths and broken lives, and all the blood spilled in Colombia these past decades,” the pope said.

DEEPLY POLARIZED

Conflict between right-wing paramilitary squads, Marxist rebels, and government forces since the 1960s has killed more than 220,000 people and left millions more displaced.

Now Colombians are deeply polarized as they prepare to receive 7,000 former fighters, such as Londono, into society.

Many are furious that under last year’s peace deal, FARC leaders accused of kidnapping and murder will avoid jail sentences and may receive seats in congress as members of a new political party. [nL1N1DN22O]

Francis addressed this hesitancy head-on.

“Undoubtedly, it is a challenge for each of us to trust that those who inflicted suffering on communities and on a whole country can take a step forward,” he said.

“Let us heal that pain and welcome every person who has committed offences, who admits their failures, is repentant and truly wants to make reparation.”

As he left Villavicencio, he stopped to pray at the Reconciliation Cross, a memorial to survivors and those killed during the war, and planted a tree as a symbol of peace.

Earlier, Francis celebrated a Mass for hundreds of thousands of people on a muddy field to beatify Pedro Maria Ramirez, a priest who was killed in 1948 during a period of political violence known as “La Violencia,” and Bishop Jesus Emilio Jaramillo, killed in 1989 by the National Liberation Army (ELN) for suspected collaboration with the military.

(Additional reporting by Helen Murphy and Anastasia Moloney in Bogota; Writing by Helen Murphy and Phillip Pullella; Editing by Alistair Bell)</s>BOGOTA: Pope Francis held an open-air mass on Thursday (Sep 7) for hundreds of thousands of worshippers in Colombia, urging forgiveness as they seek a lasting end to half a century of civil war.

Cheering crowds greeted the 80-year-old Argentine pontiff as he urged them to reject "vengeance" - though some warned forgiveness was hard after so much violence.

Francis earlier met with President Juan Manuel Santos, who has overseen a controversial peace deal with the FARC rebel force and a ceasefire with the last active guerrilla group, the ELN.

Those are key steps towards ending a many-sided conflict, fueled by drug trafficking, that has left 260,000 people confirmed dead, 60,000 unaccounted for and seven million displaced.

"Here, as in other places, there is a thick darkness which threatens and destroys life," Francis said in his homily in Bogota's Simon Bolivar Park.

"The darkness of thirst for vengeance and the hatred which stains the hands of those who would right wrongs on their own authority; the darkness of those who become numb to the pain of so many victims. Jesus scatters and destroys all this darkness."

Beside Francis on the roofed stage, prayers were read by guests including an indigenous leader in a feathered head-dress - a representative of the rural communities particularly hurt by the war.

Santos won a Nobel Peace Prize last year for his part in the accord that has seen the FARC disarm and transform into a political party.

But the peace process has been fraught with division. Critics say the FARC rebels got off too lightly, with amnesties and alternative sentences.

Francis last year tried unsuccessfully to mediate between Santos and the lead opponent of the FARC accord, conservative ex-president Alvaro Uribe.



"This process is a lie ... I believe in God, but I do not need intermediaries," said Bogota resident Luis Eduardo Martinez, 63, commenting on the pope's visit as Francis's admirers gathered.



"We who saw so many victims die have not lost our resentment. I hope God will allow me to let that resentment go, but it is still there."



In a balcony address to crowds of young people near Bogota's cathedral, Francis urged them to "dream big" for the country's future.



"Your youthfulness ... makes you capable of something very difficult in life: forgiving. Forgiving those who have hurt us," he said.



FARC leader Rodrigo Londono hailed the pope, tweeting his thanks to Francis "for supporting the peace and defending social and environmental justice."

Santos thanked Francis for coming to "encourage us to take the first step toward reconciliation.



Carlos Arturo Rodriguez, 51, an indigenous traditional doctor, traveled from the southern Caqueta region to see the pope.



Rodriguez told AFP his wife and various other relatives were killed by state security forces during the conflict. "I forgive them with all my heart," he said. "But I don't know whether my God does."



After talks with Santos at the presidential palace, Francis visited Bogota cathedral and met with bishops.

He posed for selfies with worshippers and prayed before the image of the Virgin of Chiquinquira, Colombia's patron saint, which was flown to Bogota by helicopter for the occasion.



From Friday he will make daily excursions by plane to the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena.

In Villavicencio, he will pray for reconciliation with victims of violence, former guerrilla members and ex-military fighters.

"I think this pope has a very positive energy," said Cristal Vivas, 15, who came out to see him in Bogota. "He puts himself in the place of us, the common people... and inspires peace in people."</s>BOGOTA, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Thursday urged Colombians to shun vengeance following a bloody 50-year war with guerrillas but challenged the country's leaders to enact just laws to resolve the causes of inequality that lead to violence.

At the start of his first full day in Colombia, Francis told government leaders that all Colombians should see peace as a long-term commitment and not allow it to be weakened by partisan politics.

Colombians are deeply polarized as they prepare to receive 7,000 former fighters of the FARC guerrilla group into society and aim to repair divisions after a war that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions over five decades.

"Despite obstacles, differences and varying perspectives on the way to achieve peaceful coexistence, this task (of reconciliation) summons us to persevere in the struggle to promote a culture of encounter," he told the dignitaries, headed by President Juan Manuel Santos

Many Colombians, however, are furious that under the 2016 peace deal, FARC leaders accused of kidnapping, displacements and murder will avoid jail sentences and instead may receive seats in congress as members of a civilian political party.

"It is not worth silencing the rifles, if we remain armed in our hearts," Santos said. "There's no point in ending a war, if we still see one another as enemies. That's why we need to reconcile."

Francis said he hoped the determination to achieve lasting peace should "help us flee from the temptation to vengeance and the satisfaction of short-term partisan interests."

He added: "The more demanding the path that leads to peace and understanding, the greater must be our efforts to acknowledge each another, to heal wounds, to build bridges, to strengthen relationships and support one another."

But Francis, on his 20th foreign trip and his fifth to his native Latin America, said "just laws" were needed to "resolve the structural causes of poverty that lead to exclusion and violence."

As part of the peace agreement, the government agreed with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to distribute more land and land titles to poor rural communities and to invest and bring development to war-torn areas.

The FARC, which began as a peasant revolt in 1964, has also pledged to help subsistence farmers switch from illegal crops like coca, the raw material that makes cocaine, to food crops.

"Let us not forget that inequality is the root of social ills," Francis said at the presidential palace, after hugging and blessing children dressed in white.

The pope received a tumultuous welcome when he arrived on Wednesday, and crowds gathered early on Thursday morning in front of the Vatican embassy to see him leave for the presidential palace.

"The pope´s visit will allow Colombians to move toward a true reconciliation. It will fill our hearts with the presence of God, with joy and blessing for our land for which we have suffered so much," said Olga Guerrero, a student in front of the embassy.

In his speech to the leaders, the pope quoted from the 1982 Nobel Prize acceptance speech of Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez about life and love being the proper response to oppression and added in his own words:

"There has been too much hatred and vengeance ... we do not want any type of violence whatsoever to restrict or destroy one more life."

Francis will spend all of Thursday in Bogota, visiting the capital's colonial cathedral and saying a Mass before an expected crowd of more than a million people in Simon Bolivar Park.

He will visit the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena before leaving for Rome on Sunday night. (Additional reporting by Carlos Vargas, Julia Symmes Cobb, Anastasia Moloney and Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Philip Pullella; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)</s>Pope Francis will use his first full day in Colombia to send a message of unity, planting a tree of peace and saying a Mass to preach reconciliation in a nation bitterly divided after five decades of war.

BOGOTA: Pope Francis will use his first full day in Colombia to send a message of unity, planting a tree of peace and saying a Mass to preach reconciliation in a nation bitterly divided after five decades of war.

Francis received a tumultuous welcome on Wednesday afternoon. Screaming crowds mobbed the popemobile carrying the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics as it made its way slowly from the airport to the Vatican Embassy in central Bogota.

Faithful threw flowers and held up children to be kissed.

"Don't let anyone steal your happiness, don't let anyone steal your hope," Francis told young people outside the embassy, his residence during the trip.

Francis, making his 20th foreign trip since becoming pontiff in 2013 and his fifth to his native Latin America, will spend all of Thursday in Bogota and then make day visits to the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena before leaving for Rome on Sunday night.

The Argentine pope will hold private meetings with President Juan Manuel Santos and Catholic bishops. He will also meet bishops from Venezuela, which has gone through months of protests against President Nicolas Maduro, who has tightened his hold on power amid an escalating economic crisis.

Francis will encourage reconciliation for Colombians as they prepare to receive 7,000 former FARC rebels into society and aim to repair divisions after a war that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions over five decades.

During his stay in Bogota - whose theme is "Builders of Peace, Promoters of Life" - Francis will visit the colonial cathedral to pray before a painting of Our Lady of Chiquinquira, the patron saint of overwhelmingly Catholic Colombia.

The afternoon Mass in the capital's sprawling Simon Bolivar Park is expected to draw more than a million people.

Former fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, now a civilian political party, hope to use words instead of weapons to change Colombia.

But many are furious that under the 2016 peace deal FARC leaders accused of kidnapping, displacements and murder will avoid jail sentences and instead may receive seats in congress.

Anger over the accord has not dampened enthusiasm for the pope's visit. Tens of thousands are expected to pack the main cathedral square carrying rosaries, waving flags and wearing T-shirts and baseball caps bearing Francis' image.

People were already saving spaces along the route to Bolivar Park, nearly 24 hours before the Mass was due to start.

"It's fantastic, we're so happy, he radiates love, mercy, compassion, joy, peace for the Colombian people," said economist Maria Claudia Garavito, 57.

"The important thing is that people, politicians and civil society disarm our hearts so that we can move forward for the union and reconciliation of the country."</s>Pope Francis urged young Colombians on Thursday to take the lead in promoting forgiveness after a half-century of armed conflict, and he demanded the ruling class address the entrenched inequalities that sparked Latin America's longest-running armed rebellion.

"There has been too much hatred and violence," Francis told a crowd at Bogota's presidential palace that included disabled children and soldiers with amputated limbs.

Francis received a raucous welcome on his first full day in Colombia, with young choir members abandoning their positions in the palace courtyard and throwing their arms around him as he arrived. The crowd was equally jubilant at Bogota's main Plaza Bolivar, where about 22,000 flag-waving Colombians interrupted him repeatedly.

History's first Latin American pope took the interruptions, protocol hiccups and security breaches in stride, joking with the crowds and relishing in the adoration of one of the continent's most staunchly Roman Catholic countries.

In his first major speech of his trip, Francis appealed to President Juan Manuel Santos and Colombia's political, cultural and economic elite to avoid the temptation to seek vengeance as the country emerges from the conflict and works to rebuild. Instead, he said they should commit themselves to "heal wounds, build bridges, strengthen relationships and support one another."

One year after the government signed a peace accord with rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known by its Spanish acronym FARC, the guns have fallen silent and 7,000 rebels are transitioning back to civilian life. But Colombians remain badly divided over the accord, with conservative opponents seeing it as too generous for the guerrillas who were behind scores of atrocities during the conflict.

In all, the fighting left more than 250,000 people dead, 60,000 missing and millions more displaced.

Citing the most famous work of Colombia's Nobel laureate, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Francis said Colombians now needed to reconcile.

"The solitude of always being at loggerheads has been familiar for decades, and its smell has lingered for a hundred years," he said. "We do not want any type of violence whatsoever to restrict or destroy one more life."

Francis appealed to Colombia's youth to take the lead in promoting forgiveness, saying young people more than adults are able to "leave behind what has hurt us and look to the future without the burden of hatred."

"You make us see the wider world which stands before us, the whole of Colombia that wishes to grow and continue its development," he said.

Looking ahead, Francis insisted that Colombia now needed to enact "just laws" to resolve the structural causes of poverty and inequality to "overcome the conflicts that have torn apart this nation for decades."

"Let us not forget that inequality is the root of social ills," he warned.

The FARC formed as a Marxist army in the mid-1960s to overthrow Colombia's economic and social system and open the way to redistributing land amid gross economic inequalities.

While the first year of the accord's implementation has seen the FARC disarm, it also has been marked by the state's failures to bring services to hard-to-reach communities where the government has historically had little presence and where rebels are beginning a new chapter as civilians. Former guerrillas arriving at many of the 26 demobilization zones found little more than fields of mud, and months later many remain living in tents rather than the buildings with running water and electricity that the government promised.

Colombia is the most unequal country in terms of land distribution in Latin America, itself the worst region in the world. Large agricultural holdings of more than 500 hectares represent around 0.4 percent of all farms in Colombia but control more than 67 percent of the productive land, according to an Oxfam report last year.

The peace deal and an earlier land reform are supposed to redistribute the land and compensate victims driven from their homesteads by illegal armed groups. But authorities overseeing the process have been slow to hand out titles, and peasant farmers in far-flung regions face numerous threats asserting their rights. Last year, 59 human rights defenders — many of them land rights activists — were killed yet only a handful of their murders ever solved, according to the United Nations.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who won last year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the conflict, echoed the pope's words in his speech, urging Colombians to let go of lingering resentments.

"Silencing the guns is worthless if we remain armed in our hearts," he told the crowd. "Ending the war is worthless if we still see each other as enemies."

Francis had a packed day Thursday, meeting with bishops from around the region, including his first encounter with clergy from neighboring Venezuela who are looking for the pope to demand accountability from their country's socialist government and deliver a message of hope to that nation torn by political and economic turmoil.

He ends the day with an outdoor Mass in Simon Bolivar Park, with hundreds of thousands expected.

The theme of reconciliation wasn't far from Francis' mind from the moment he arrived in Bogota on Wednesday to great fanfare.

In a gesture likely to mark the deep symbolism of the trip, he was presented on the tarmac with a commemorative peace dove by a youth who was born in a jungle camp to a guerrilla father and a politician mother after she was taken captive by FARC rebels in 2002. Clara Rojas, now a congresswoman, did not see her son after his birth until she was freed in 2008 when he was 3.

Francis then made his way in the popemobile past thousands of people who had stood for hours waiting to catch a glimpse of the wildly popular pontiff along the 15-kilometer (9-mile) route from the airport to the Vatican Embassy.

With no police line in sight, Francis was practically mobbed by well-wishers, though he seemed to revel in the outpouring of emotion from people showering him with flowers, red-yellow-and-blue Colombian flags and shouts of "Viva Francisco." He even gave a few high-fives to some youths who got a little too close.

Once at the Nunciature in Bogota, where Francis will sleep every night, he delivered his first public remarks to a group of young people battling drug addiction, urging them never to lose "happiness and hope."

It was a message that resonated with Angie Albanil, who spent part of her teenage years on the streets of Bogota but now is getting back on her feet as part of a church-backed group that performed rap and traditional cumbia music for the pontiff.

"The ills that have spread in society, we're the ones who have to overcome them with respect for people who think differently," she said in a prepared remarks read to the pope upon his arrival. "We're the ones who have to build a society in which we all fit."
Pope Francis, responding to FARC rebel leader Rodrigo Londoño's open letter asking for forgiveness for the suffering the group had inflicted on the country during his talk in Villavicencio, urges Colombians skeptical of the peace deal to be open to reconciliation.