Colombian troops look for bishop kidnapped by rebels

ZIPAQUIRA, Colombia -- Army troops backed by helicopters searched mountains north of the capital Tuesday for one of Latin America's leading Roman Catholic bishops who was kidnapped a day earlier.

The abduction of Bishop Jorge Enrique Jimenez, president of the Latin American bishops conference, drew outrage from church officials across the world and warnings of excommunication.

Jimenez was seized Monday with the Rev. Desiderio Orjuela and their driver as they headed to a religious ceremony. The driver was later released.

Residents of Zipaquira, 25 miles north of the capital, held a prayer vigil Tuesday in the soaring brick and stone cathedral where Jimenez worked. Hundreds of people, many of them children, walked through the village of whitewashed red-tile roofed homes carrying white handkerchiefs, flowers and rosaries.

"The seriousness of the crime is incalculable," Bogota Archbishop Pedro Rubiano told reporters in the capital.

Pope John Paul II said in a telegram that he felt "deep pain" and was praying that those responsible free the bishop.

The Colombian army blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which is holding dozens of politicians, police and soldiers in hopes of exchanging them for jailed rebels. The rebel group did not immediately comment on the kidnapping.

"They disgust me," Manuel Antonio Garcia, a 62-year-old resident of Zipaquira said of the rebels.