Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, 75, leads the Vatican's office for priests. Although dozens of priests have been killed in Italy for straightforward talk, Castrillon has a reputation for courage and outspokenness.
Over the years, he has called on a Colombian president whose election campaign was financed by drug traffickers to step down, branded lawmakers bribed by traffickers a national disgrace and urged voters to reject a presidential candidate because he supported the right to divorce.
In Pereira, a city in the coffee-growing region where he spent 22 years as a bishop, Castrillon is remembered as fearless in action as well as words. He would walk at night through the streets of the mountain town with a huge cup of hot coffee and bread for the beggars and mentally ill people who slept on the sidewalks.
From his pulpit, Castrillon accused Pereira police of killing prostitutes, street children and beggars in a lethal "social cleansing" program.
Castrillon once met with leading Medellin cocaine trafficker Pablo Escobar to ask him to surrender. Escobar refused and in 1993 was shot to death by police. Castrillon also rode on horseback to several meetings with guerrillas in the jungles and was instrumental in peace talks that ended with the demobilization of the M-19 guerrilla group.
