Death in El Salvador
J., Jon Sobrino, S.
A VOICE FROM THE WILDERNESS DEATH IN EL SALVADOR WHY THE WAR GOES ON Jon Sobrino, S.J., worked and lived with the six Jesuits who were killed in San Salvador in the early hours of November 16. At...
...Wealth is not the best companion of Christian faith...
...The decision to go on has been made by the Jesuit provincial...
...It has to end through negotiations...
...We must work to change these structures or these killings will go on, not just in El Salvador but all over Latin America where things are getting worse...
...A new policy is needed, not to keep the fighting alive, but to keep on pressure so that both sides will negotiate...
...Second, that these events are Good News, as we say the Gospel is the Good News there is hope...
...the group will be hard to replace...
...They freely gave up their lives for this...
...there is love in the world...
...Archbishop Romero, just before he was killed, said it: "I say now I forgive and bless those who will kill me...
...It goes much deeper...
...The Jesuits have been killed because they loved their brothers and sisters...
...That is the Christian response to these deaths...
...They don't take life for granted...
...In El Salvador the life of faith makes sense...
...Ellacuria [Ignacio Ellacuria, S.J., rector of the university] has been very active in working for peace and diaogue...
...These killings did not happen by chance...
...So these attacks on the churches are an effort to dismantle the work for faith and justice...
...to make our efforts ineffective by killing and terrorizing...
...Recently he had two private talks with President [Alfredo] Cristiani...
...but it has something of higher value to offer, the meaning of life...
...Since 1980 there have been several attacks on the university, and our house was destroyed in 1983...
...It is not for "sound" people...
...For Americans then, I would say, these events have two meanings...
...El Salvador does not have weapons, or wealth, or technology to offer...
...Please understand, life in Central America is not as it is in the U.S...
...Americans must ask themselves, "What should we do to be in solidarity with these people...
...That means ideally that the churches will stay, that the work will continue...
...At the funeral Mass, the papal nuncio said these men were martyrs...
...We want to call these people to conversion...
...I don't think the current administration in Washington will withdraw aid...
...But that won't happen...
...It is they who harass the churches the Episcopalians, the Lutherans, the Mennonites, as well as the Catholic church...
...the computer center, the library, the printing building have all been attacked...
...It is their daily task...
...If the problem of poverty is not solved, conflict will always arise, conflict that will be interpreted in a political way...
...Americans need to take this time to analyze what is happening...
...But in any case, Americans should understand that the problem in El Salvador is not political...
...In the United States and Europe you are very highly developed, you have technology and wealth, but you have difficulty in finding a meaning to life...
...Of course, it will be difficult...
...In that sense ecumenism is easy in El Salvador...
...This is the most eloquent way of saying they were good Christians...
...The public opinion polls show that all the people want is peace...
...For the poor simply to live, to survive, is difficult...
...But I can say this...
...They don't want Christians who follow Jesus of Nazareth...
...There are casualties, violations of human rights, an increase in refugees...
...But how can you say you believe in God and do nothing about that commitment...
...From this love comes hope...
...But the Jesuits were confident nothing would happen now because the house was surrounded by the military who would be held responsible...
...I have loved these men and worked with them many years...
...The war will not end militarily...
...In this world of injustice they have shown their love for men and women...
...the poor have united us...
...We live in El Salvador, as elsewhere, in the world amidst poverty...
...These differences are not rooted in dogmatic questions, but in the kind of commitment we should have in the face of poverty...
...it is not only a political problem but a human problem...
...Twenty percent of Salvadorans have been forced to leave...
...The cook and her daughter were staying in the house because they thought it was safer than their own little house close to the road...
...First, there is the challenge to see that "we have to change ourselves...
...About the political situation, I have no very clear personal opinion...
...Americans' first effort should be to understand why many in El Salvador, as elsewhere, live inhuman lives...
...So these deaths are tragic and paradoxical...
...As for the killers: as Christians and human beings, we are ready to forgive...
...We cannot believe in the Jesus Christ sent by God without taking this option for the poor...
...The Society of Jesus and the university have not been killed...
...What happened to the Jesuits, to Archbishop Oscar Romero, to the American churchwomen happens all over the world to priests, to sisters, to catechists, to peasants...
...With war in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, things become worse...
...Rather it is those who control the country: the extreme right, the oligarchy, the death squads, and some members of the army...
...that was considered treason...
...it is a problem of poverty...
...But these are individuals...
...It has been difficult to accept their deaths...
...They want to go back to the old religion where you simply accept everything that happens...
...Now in the United States waiting to return to El Salvador, where he has worked for sixteen years at the University of Central America, he spoke with Commonweal by telephone from the West Coast...
...In the face of these many tragedies, there is still a feeling of community, of overcoming individualism and selfishness...
...It is the structures allowing this kind of killing that we have to fight the structures that produce the slow death through poverty...
...There are those who do not want to commit themselves...
...Others do...
...But now we understand the university as a social force working for faith and justice...
...His latest book is Spirituality of Liberation: Toward Political Holiness (Orbis, 1988...
...We don't want more deaths...
...These obscure forces do not want Christians who believe in faith and justice...
...It is not the will of God that the poor live like this...
...Otherwise, you see that the terrible things that have happened and still happen become normal...
...I feel a great loss, an irreparable loss...
...At the time of the murders, he was lecturing in Thailand...
...none of this started yesterday...
...But a great number of Jesuits from all over the world have volunteered to come and work in the university...
...JON SOBRINO Jon Sobrino, SJ., is professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Central America in San Salvador...
...In all of this the government is not too important...
...The crucified people of El Salvador show it...
...It is unlikely that the guerrillas will ever take over, but if they did, Stalin would not come to El Salvador...
...You know Christian faith is a little bit crazy...
...THE EDITORS The Jesuits have had a long history of receiving threats...
...In 1975 we Jesuits said our mission today is to defend faith and justice...
...Second, the FMLN wanted to show that they had real power, that they were not just a small group...
...Because we supported dialogue...
...The idols of this world bring death to people who work for justice...
...It has hope to offer...
...They could then go back to negotiations having shown their power...
...Both go together...
...It seems that the FMLN hoped in their attacks in San Salvador for two things...
...First, they wanted to bring about a general uprising, which did not take place, but everyone knew that it would not...
...You know usually universities don't care too much for faith and justice...
...But as Christians the pope, bishops, liberation theologians we all know from Puebla and Medellin of the option for the poor...
...In our minds and many others, we were working not for the government, not for the FMLN [Farabundo Marti Liberation Front], but to end the war...
...They are in control...
...Your readers should feel so concerned that these events become a call to conversion, a call to think and act differently...
...There are different understandings of what the church should do and be...
Vol. 116 • December 1989 • No. 22
