Colombia: Qualification No. I

High Colombian government officials are full of public praise for President Kennedy’s Peace Corps, and private misgivings that the corps organizers may forget to explore all the angles. Said one: “I think that after your government gives the girls and boys an examination, we Colombians should give them another. The most important question for a norteamericano going into the backlands is: ‘Are you a Roman Catholic?’ In our rural society, the village priest commands both the body and soul of the peasants. I’m afraid for non-Catholics, however noble the U.S.’s purpose.”