Yesterday the Bishop of Fontibon met with the president of Bogota’s airport management company, OPAIN, and the lending contract was reestablished.

Newsroom (27/09/2022 3:30 PM, Gaudium Press) The Catholic chapel at the Eldorado airport in Bogota, Colombia, is returning after numerous protests at the airport itself and the mobilization of many people through social networks.

Yesterday, the Bishop of Fontibón, Bishop Juan Vicente Cordoba, who is responsible for this chapel, issued a statement in which he declared that “today, Thursday, September 22, I had a meeting with the Archbishop of Bogotá, Archbishop Luis José Rueda, Dr. Mauricio Ossa, president of the board of directors of OPAIN and his work team. After analyzing with calm, openness, clarity and humility everything related to the issue of the Catholic Oratory at the Eldorado airport, we reached a very good agreement for the glory of God and the good of the citizens. By mutually listening to the necessary clarifications, OPAIN and the Diocese of Fontibón have decided to continue with the lending of the Catholic Oratory at the Eldorado Airport and the Oratory at the Air Bridge.”

What happened

In effect, by a unilateral decision, Bogotá’s airport management company, OPAIN, had informed the Diocese of Fontibón that it was terminating a loan agreement that allowed the chapel at that airport until 2037. The news provoked widespread indignation and demonstrations of protest at the airport itself. In the media, Bishop Córdoba showed images of the letter in which OPAIN communicated the decision. The company affirmed that it met the demands of the Bogotá City Hall, which had asked that this space not be destined only for Catholicism, but open to all religious confessions. Gaudium Press learned of several legal initiatives that were being prepared to demand respect for the rights acquired after many years of existence of that chapel at the airport.

With the suspension of the loan by OPAIN, the Church has also suffered a patrimonial loss, since it had invested a considerable amount of money in the adaptation of the chapel, which had been handed over to the Church still unfinished. With the controversy, the Diocese had to remove furniture, paintings and other liturgical elements, as well as the Blessed Sacrament, while the situation was being defined, which fortunately was concluded, according to the Bishop.

The OPAIN will also adapt a multi-faith space.

In the communiqué, Bishop Cordoba praised dialogue as a generator of peace and entrusted everyone to Our Lady of Loreto, patroness of aviators.

Compiled by Angelica Vecchiato