ZIPAQUIRA, Colombia (AP) - 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 school 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, adding that they should not target clerics. ``They're not to blame for anything,'' he said.
Colombian Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez said troops backed by army and air force helicopters fanned out across the mountainous area where Jimenez was kidnapped.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, meeting Tuesday in Washington, expressed its concern for Jimenez and the Colombian church.
``He is very much with us in prayer,'' said Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, chairman of the American bishops' Committee on International Policy.
Jimenez is president of the Latin American bishops conference, an organization of Roman Catholic bishops that determines church policy in the region and has a mandate covering the 22 nations of Latin America, home to nearly half the world's Catholics.
Fernando Saenz Lacalle, the archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, called the kidnapping ``irrational'' and ``unjust.''
``This is very sad news,'' he said. ``We are praying that this worrisome problem is resolved rapidly.''
German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul appealed to the kidnappers to ``release their victim immediately and unconditionally.''
Earlier this year, the archbishop of Cali, Isaias Duarte, was shot and killed after performing a mass wedding in a poor neighborhood in Colombia's third-largest city. Authorities are still investigating the motive for the slaying.
Since 1984, one archbishop, one bishop and 48 priests have been assassinated in Colombia, according to the bishops conference. Four bishops, 14 priests and a missionary have been kidnapped.
Colombia has the highest kidnapping rate in the world, with more than 3,000 people taken hostage last year. The rebels use kidnapping to press their political agenda as well as for ransom.