The Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador
A group of highly trained soldiers entered the campus of the University of Central America in San Salvador shortly past midnight on Nov. 16, 1989. While their primary target was the president of the university, Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J., they murdered and mutilated nearly the entire Jesuit community—Ignacio and five others. The soldiers also murdered Elba and Celina Ramos, the Jesuits’ housekeeper and her daughter, who slept on campus that night because they believed it was safer than the neighborhood where they lived.
The civil war in El Salvador lasted 12 years, from 1980 to 1992, and claimed 75,000 lives. As a result of the assassinations at the university, the U.S. Congress finally began to face the problem of U.S. complicity in that conflict.
Articles
The Road From Aguilares: Twenty Years Later: Remembering the Martyrs of El Salvador
Twenty Years Later: Remembering the Martyrs of El Salvador
Blessed Are The Pure of Heart: The Ellacuría Tapes
When we think of martyrs for justice in the world today the beatitudes that immediately spring to mind may be ldquo blessed are the peacemakers rdquo or even ldquo blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness rdquo We likely don rsquo t give much thought to the martyrs as the pur
Truth, Then Justice: Memory and healing in El Salvador
In Arcatao, El Salvador, a small town nestled amid stunning mountain vistas near the Honduran border, the Historical Memory Committee is charged with preserving the memory of the civil war that left more than 75,000 dead—and thousands more “disappeared”—between 1980 and 1992.
In solidarity with the slain Jesuits of El Salvador
Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., former editor in chief of America, gave this homily at a memorial Mass for the Jesuits slain Jesuits at St. Ignatius Church in New York on Nov. 22, 1989.
