"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. 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. 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. 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. 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. "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.
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.