On August 12, 84, he died in Bucaramanga (Colombia) Mons. Nel Heyde Beltrán Santamaría, Bishop Emeritus of Sincelejo, who dedicated himself to fighting for peace in the country, being part of different opportunities of the dialogues with the guerrillas.
“The Episcopal Conference of Colombia joins in prayer begging the Lord to receive our pastor in his glorious kingdom, who gave his life to the service of the Church, highlighting his mission in favor of peace, for which the National Peace Prize was awarded in 2011,” said the Colombian bishops in their website.
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“The monsignor funeral will be held in Bucaramanga and then in Sincelejo, where it will be buried,” adds the episcopate note.
According to the Diocese of Sincelejothe mortal remains of the Prelate will be received in the Park of the journalist, this Thursday, August 14 at 5:30 pm the Mass of Exequias will be presided over on Friday 15 the Bishop of Sincelejo, Mons. Jorge Jiménez Carvajal, at 10:00 am; While the grave will be that day at 12:00 pm
Mons. Beltrán Santamaría was a member of the National Conciliation Commission, an autonomous entity created in 1995 and convened by the then president of the CEC, Cardinal Pedro Rubiano, to seek political solutions to the armed conflict and accompany the efforts to achieve peace.
However, his work in pursuit of national reconciliation in Colombia began in the 80’s, during the government of President Belisario Betancur. Years later, in 1992 he was in the conversations in Tlaxcala (Mexico) between the government of César Gaviria and the so -called Guerrillera National Coordinator Simón Bolívar, who brought together the FARC, the ELN and the popular liberation army.
He was also part of the Peace Dialogues of the Government of Andrés Pastrana and the FARC, in 1998.
In 2003, some civil society organizations convened the Catholic Church through the Bishop of Sincelejo to lead the creation of an organization that channel efforts under the construction of peace and development, according to the website of the utadeo.
In August 2015, he was part of the CEC delegation, along with Mons. Luis Augusto Castro, who met with the leaders of the same guerrillas in Havana (Cuba).
Less than a year later, the government of then President Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC signed the “Final Agreement for the termination of the conflict and the construction of a stable and lasting peace”.
Who was Bishop Nel Heyde Beltrán Santamaría?
Mons. Nel Heyde Beltrán Santamaría was a Colombian bishop who was born on December 24, 1941 in Bucaramanga. He was ordained a priest on June 29, 1964 in Barrancabermeja, after studying philosophy at the Major Seminary of Pamplona and Theology at the Pontifical Javeriana University in Bogotá.
He obtained the Bachelor of Sociology at the Pontifical University of Santo Tomás and the Doctorate in Moral Theology at the Pontifical Athenaeum of San Alfonso, both studies centers in Rome.
He has served, among other positions, as director of the National Secretariat of Social Pastoral of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia until April 1992; Member of the Permanent Committee of the Episcopal Conference, member of the Social Pastoral Committee, responsible for human mobility in Colombia; and president of the Red Development and Peace Foundation of the Montes de María.
He was appointed Bishop of Sincelejo in April 1992, a position he held until March 13, 2014, when his resignation was accepted.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.