Caritas is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Bishop Jaime Prieto Amaya , President of Caritas Colombia.
Msgr Prieto, 69, Bishop of Cúcuta died in Bogotá last night on 25 August following a serious illness.
“Msgr Prieto was dedicated to bringing peace to his country. Right up until the final months of his life he worked hard for justice on behalf of the poorest and most vulnerable people in Colombia,” said Lesley-Anne Knight, Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis.
He was passionate about encouraging reconciliation in Colombia, where there has been a civil war for decades. The war has uprooted millions of people and led to many deaths and cases of human rights abuses.
This year Msgr Prieto travelled to a number of European countries to lobby Governments to support the peace process in Colombia. But he believed that the responsibility for bringing peace back to his land was in everyone’s hands.
At a meeting in Bogotá in March he said, “The issue of peace is so complex that we cannot leave it only in the hands of the Church or the Churches. Peace is a task for all, men and women. It is real issue and the reality is not only material or temporal. It is also eternal and transcendent.”
The funeral and burial of Msgr Prieto will take place on Sunday 29 August in San José Cathedral where he was bishop in Cúcuta.
For more information, please contact Michelle Hough on +39 06 69879721/+39 334 2344136 or [email protected]