310.1163/89: Telegram
The Ambassador in Colombia (Lane) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:20 p.m.]
2305. My airgrams 1011 and 1020, December 1382 and strictly confidential despatch 3090 of the same date regarding missionary situation in Colombia.
Ex-President Santos informs me that in his opinion chief reason for hostility on the part of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical authorities towards American Protestant missionaries in Colombia is economic. He said that except in certain districts, such as some sectors of Bogotá and Medellín, the Church in Colombia is surprisingly poor and that many of the priests have hardly sufficient funds with which to live. He said that a parish priest in the outlying districts of Colombia generally is paid for funeral, marriage and baptismal services in small quantities of foodstuffs barely sufficient to sustain him. Actions of American missionaries having come to Colombia with private bank accounts and liberal allowances for living expenses has created bitter animosity on the part of the Catholic clergy.
Speaking of the lack of tact of certain of the American missionaries Santos [said] “fanatics never have tact whether they be Catholics, Protestants, or Mussulmen”.
- Neither printed.↩