441. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, November 10, 19551
SUBJECT
- 4. Persecution of Protestants
PARTICIPANTS
- Dr. Francisco Urrutia Holguin, Ambassador of Colombia2
- Henry F. Holland, Assistant Secretary
- OSA: Albert H. Gerberich
Mr. Holland said he had one problem that has given him a lot of headaches. The Ambassador said he knew what it was: the [Page 888] Protestant problem. Mr. Holland asked him if he had heard of the latest incident, the beating of an American missionary in the Llanos.3 The Ambassador said Foreign Minister Sourdis had given him the details. He said he has been studying that problem, and has a suggestion to make in solving it. He was recently in Spain and talked to Artajo4 and Ruiz Jiménez (Spanish Ambassador to the Holy See), who told him that when they were perplexed by the “bestialidades” of Archbishop Segura they appealed directly to the Holy See, and with good effect. Urrutia has a very good friend at the Vatican, Father Antonio Samoré, former Papal Nuncio to Colombia, who now has a high position in the Secretariat of State of the Vatican. He believes he can intervene directly with him when the Colombian hierarchy does not act promptly. He has noted that it is not the priests of the large cities, but those of the rural districts, that are the chief offenders. The “poor” police wouldn’t act in such a highhanded fashion in those areas if the local priests didn’t egg them on.
Mr. Holland said that in the present case it was not a priest who was the offender, but an inspector of police. The Ambassador said that was correct, and he has been placed under arrest. Mr. Holland said the latest he heard was that he has been released and is making new threats. He thought the man ought to be punished for this. The Ambassador said he was sorry to hear that he had been released, but under Colombian law it is very easy to get bail, and there is not much that can be done about it; the laws would have to be changed. Mr. Holland said he wanted the Ambassador to know that his position wasn’t a pleasant one. A few months ago the Catholics were ready to bum him in effigy because he was not taking strenuous steps to dissuade Peron from dealing iron-handedly with the Church. In the case of Colombia, the Protestants are indignant and making things hot for him, and they have excellent connections in the Capitol and in the press. The question is one that has to be faced in a spirit of tolerance and justice.
(It is doubtful that Samoré can do much for the solution of the religious problem in Colombia. Confidential sources informed us at the time he left Bogotá that he had become persona non grata to Cardinal Luque because he intervened in this very matter, and his recall was requested on that account.)
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 821.413/11–1055. Confidential. Drafted by Gerberich.↩
- Ambassador Zuleta resigned in October 1955. Urrutia, Colombian Representative at the United Nations, presented his credentials as Ambassador on November 14. He remained the representative at the United Nations until 1957.↩
- In a memorandum dated October 31 to Blankinship and Dearborn, Gerberich reported that he had been informed by the National Association of Evangelicals that an American Protestant missionary had been severely beaten in Colombia on October 17. The missionary, Julius Alan DeGruyter, had stated that Colombian policemen were among those who assaulted him. (Department of State, Central Files, 821.413/10–3155)↩
- Alberto Martin Artajo, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs.↩