This November
marks the 25th anniversary of the massacre at the University of
Central America. As we call out the names of the martyrs killed by SOA graduates
and respond “Presente!” we will also recognize the connections to struggles
today at the Mexico-US border, the slaughter of the 43 young Mexican activists,
the community-opposed Escobal mine in Guatemala, the militarization and
oppression in Honduras and Colombia and the communities like Ferguson, Missouri
all across the Americas facing militarized police forces. In the quote below we
hear the voice of Ignacio Ellacuria echo today...( In the U.S. Catholic
Universities like Jesuit-run Marquette in Milwaukee accept federal dollars for a
ROTC program for all branches of the military -- and teach reflexive
killing.
En la lucha,
Janice
November
17
Blessed Among Us
Ignacio
Ellacuria and Companions
Jesuit Martyrs
of El Salvador (d. 1989)
Twenty-five
years go, in the early morning hours of November 16, 1989, army commandos
invaded the University of Central America in San Salvador, roused the sleeping
Jesuit community, and sprayed them with machine-gun fire on the garden lawn. The
victims included six Jesuit priests along with their housekeeper and her
teenaged daughter.
For years the
Jesuits had angered the ruling elite by siding with the oppressed in the bitter
social conflict that divided the country. Spanish-born Ignacio Ellacuria, rector
of the university, had emerged as a particularly effective advocate of national
dialogue and a critic of injustice. For his efforts he was derided in right-wing
propaganda as the “brains” of the “communist” movement. The Jesuits were no
communists. They were priests who struggled to live out the Church’s
preferential option for the poor and who had committed themselves to the Jesuit
mission: “service of faith and promotion of justice.” They had committed the
university to this same mission, believing that in a world of conflict a
Christian university must stand with the victims of violence.
During a rebel
offensive that spread to the capital city, top military commanders issued an
order to eliminate all suspected leftist sympathizers. The Jesuit-run University
was among the targets. The massacre of the UCA martyrs was the grim conclusion
of a decade that began with the death of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Peace
negotiations, begun the next year, were concluded in 1992.
On Saturday morning, Olga Lucia Alvarez and Janice Sevre -Duszynska drove about an hour from Columbus to Lumpkin, Georgia where 1,000 peacemakers from our SOAW vigil gathered in front of the courthouse to rally against unjust immigration laws and inhumane for-profit detention centers . Across the street people were taking photos outside this "Christian Gun Sales" shop. How ironic!
On Saturday morning, Olga Lucia Alvarez and Janice Sevre -Duszynska drove about an hour from Columbus to Lumpkin, Georgia where 1,000 peacemakers from our SOAW vigil gathered in front of the courthouse to rally against unjust immigration laws and inhumane for-profit detention centers . Across the street people were taking photos outside this "Christian Gun Sales" shop. How ironic!
 |
| Roy Bourgeois and Barbara Zeman RCWP |
“Always
remember that there is no conversion to God if there is no conversion to the
oppressed.”
Ignacio Ellacuria, SJ
From Blessed
Among Us by Robert Ellsberg
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