Jubilant crowds greet Francis in Colombia

BOGOTA, Colombia — Pope Francis received a spirited and symbolic welcome as he arrived in Colombia on Wednesday, saying he wants to bring a message of hope for Colombians as they work to heal the wounds and divisions left by Latin America’s longest-running armed conflict.

Francis’ white popemobile was nearly mobbed by jubilant crowds who flooded the 9-mile road into Bogota from the airport, and his security detail struggled to keep them at bay without a police barricade in sight. Francis relishes diving into crowds and didn’t seem at all fazed by the flower-tossing masses, even giving a few high-fives to some young people who got a little too close.

The first pope from Latin America looked thrilled to be back in Colombia, the first country he visited after he was ordained a priest and where he exerted a good deal of effort encouraging peace negotiations that spanned his papacy.

One of the gifts he received on the tarmac had particular symbolic significance: a sculpted peace dove offered to him by the young son of a rebel father and politician mother who was taken captive by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in 2002. The boy was taken from his mother, Clara Rojas, now a congresswoman, and didn’t see her again until he was 3 years old.

In his only public remarks on his first day in Colombia, Francis begged young Colombians who gathered outside the Vatican embassy to serenade him: “Don’t ever lose happiness and hope.”

Hope is a major theme for the visit, as Francis seeks to encourage Colombians to reconcile with one another after five decades of armed rebellion. It’s a message he is expected to press on Thursday, when he addresses President Juan Manuel Santos and Colombia’s political elites, followed by hundreds of thousands of ordinary Colombians at a huge outdoor Mass in Bogota’s Simon Bolivar park.

During his visit, Francis is expected to call on Colombian leaders to address the social and economic disparities that fueled the long civil conflict, and to encourage ordinary Colombians to balance their need for justice with forgiveness.