Benedict XVI Meets with Former Hostage Ingrid Betancourt

"She wanted to thank him for his prayers, his closeness, for the various ways in which the Pope had manifested his thoughts and spiritual support for all the hostages and, in particular, naturally, also for her."

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (Zenit) - French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt described her meeting with Benedict XVI as an "extraordinary experience."The Pope met today with the former prisoner the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for about 20 minutes.

Members of her family, including her mother Yolanda Pulecio, accompanied her. The Pope had greeted Pulecio in February during a Wednesday general audience in the Paul VI Hall.

Betancourt was a candidate for the Colombian presidency when she was kidnapped in 2002.During the politician's captivity the Church in Colombia and the Holy See made several appeals for her release, as well as that of hundreds of other hostages being held by the rebel group.

Betancourt had expressed her wish to visit Benedict XVI since being rescued from the FARC on July 2.Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman and director of Vatican Radio, told reporters today that Benedict XVI's meeting with Ingrid Betancourt was characterized by "very great emotion."

Betancourt's long imprisonment was "a time of great spiritual experience, of prayer; therefore, she truly wished to communicate to the Holy Father the importance that faith had in sustaining her," he explained at a press conference held after the encounter.

"She [...] wanted to thank him for his prayers, his closeness, for the various ways in which the Pope had manifested his thoughts and spiritual support for all the hostages and, in particular, naturally, also for her," the spokesman added.

Father Lombardi said the meeting contributed "to seal what was certainly an experience of suffering, but also of great spiritual intensity."He recounted how Betancourt read the Bible daily during her imprisonment, convinced that "one must have a great spirituality not to slide into the abyss."

A Pontiff's prayers

The spokesman also mentioned how she knew about the Pope's prayer for her release, and "this hit her very profoundly."
Betancourt recounted what her feelings were when she heard the voice of Benedict XVI mention her name during her imprisonment:

"While I was a prisoner in the jungle one day we undertook a very hard and long march from the morning until the evening; we arrived very tired in the place where the camp was to be set up.I lay down in the hammock to rest with immense despair and sadness, then the radio broadcasted the Pope's voice who mentioned my name.

"I think it is difficult to explain the psychological effect on a prisoner. It was like a light of hope, and because of this, once free I wanted to see him and embrace him as soon as possible."

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"It is an extraordinary experience," she added, "for a human being to know a man of light like the Pope."