20th Anniversary of the Martyrs of El Salvador

November 16th marked the 20th Anniversary of the brutal killings of 6 Jesuit Priests and 2 women in San Salvador. These Martyrs of El Salvador were killed because they believed in faith that does justice. There blood was scattered like many before them during El Salvador's civil war which ended in 1992. These martyrs could have fled or tempered their words, but instead they continued teaching and preaching at the Jesuit University in San Salvador.


Many of you know that my semester abroad in El Salvador was an especially formative for my faith and especially for faith that does justice. Within a few days of our arrival in a country the size of Massachusetts, our program directors guided our culture-shocked selves on the 15 minute stroll from our homes to the gates of the Jesuit University, the University of Central America (UCA). These were the same gates the assassins forced open in the early morning hours and quickly moved to the Jesuit residence behind the chapel. Tracing the steps of the soldiers toward their targets, our conversation quieted as we walked down the hallway passing the rooms where the Jesuits and their companions were rudely awakened and dragged out into a grassy area. The students and I spread ourselves out in this small garden and imagined each of the Jesuits being ordered to lay face down.

Why were these Jesuits such a threat? Weren't they just academic professors with Roman collars? Sure maybe they roused communities with their preaching against oppressive social structures, but did this warrant death squads breaking into a quiet campus on a moonlit night?

The Jesuits laid in the grass for a few moments before the soldiers executed them. The target was the head of each Jesuit. These men were seen as the intellectual brainpower behind the revolution. They were falsely-accused of supporting Marxism and armed conflict. The real threat was their gospel and Christ they preached. They were not simply professors, but prophets of hope. They believed in a country that was not destitute. And so they could not support a government that promoted the good of a few at the expense of starvation and degradation of millions. This is why these men died. They believed in faith that does justice.

Elba and Celina, the two innocent women killed among the Jesuits, actually fled to the UCA campus seeking refuge. Celina's mother approached the Jesuits when they could no longer sleep in their house because of the sounds of whizzing bullets and regular bombings so closeby. How disheartening to hear that only a few weeks later these women were killed in the same evening as the Jesuits so as to prevent any report of a witness. Later, Elba's surviving husband planted eight rose bushes in the same grassy area the Jesuits laid down and spilled their blood. After he was able to grieve, he spoke about losing his wife and daughter among the Jesuits. He hoped that the death of his loved ones would inspire a greater respect for women in El Salvador and that women would continue to be strong and rise to fight sinful oppression. Today the eight rose bushes continue to represent life out of death, hope out of horror.

This week we remember these eight martyrs, more informally known as Ellacu, Nacho, Juan Ramon, Amando, Segundo, Tio Quin, Elba and Celina. Each of them lived an exceptional life of service to the disadvantaged. For more information about these holy people I've attached an article from Santa Clara University.

This weekend many of the Jesuit Novices will join the others from the Jesuit High School and University here in Detroit to honor these martyrs at the National Ignatian Teach-in located in Georgia. Pray for us and join me in prayer for the people of El Salvador.

I pray that we all may be inspired by their witness to faith that does justice in whatever God inspires and enables in our own life, no matter how small.