Colombian Marxist rebels have freed a Roman Catholic bishop they kidnapped over the weekend, the church said on Tuesday.
Misael Vacca, the bishop of Yopal, was safe in the small town of Morcote, not far from where he was kidnapped by the National Liberation Army in mountains northeast of the capital Bogota, his office said.
Pope John Paul II had called Vacca's kidnapping a criminal act and demanded his swift release.
The rebels, known by their Spanish initials ELN, had told other priests when they took Vacca away that they planned to release him soon with a message for the government.
The 5,000-strong rebel army was long led by a renegade priest who interpreted biblical teachings to help the poor as a call to arms.
The Catholic Church in Colombia has occasionally acted as a mediator between the government and both the ELN and the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, although both guerrilla groups have occasionally kidnapped or even killed priests.