By Mary Morin

The twentieth anniversary celebration of Good Shepherd’s twinning with El Buen Pastor took place through the effort and support of hundreds of parish and citywide individuals and groups.  The visit began on November 8th and concluded on November 16th.

The eight-day visit by Serbando, Marlene and Hilda from El Salvador was a whirlwind of dinners, interviews, meetings, visits to schools, and gatherings.

The momentum began with the Saturday evening Mass, November 10th. Father Francis Hund, Father Tom Kerns, and Father George Seuferling concelebrated. The church was packed.

Following Mass, the third annual Fiesta provided an opportunity to enhance the parish goal of global and local involvement. Holy Name Parish in Kansas City, Kansas catered a Mexican dinner for 350 people. Wally Kisthardt, serving as master of ceremonies, kicked off the evening’s program by singing his original song, “We Celebrate”. Megan Wanccura accompanied him on the saxophone.

On behalf of the parish, Father Francis accepted Buen Pastor’s gift of a painting of the Last Supper. Fifth graders from Good Shepherd School sang several songs. The Fiesta concluded with excited children breaking the two piñatas.

On Sunday parishioners volunteered to serve as translators at each of the Masses. Marlene remarked that it was so meaningful for her to touch the shoulder of those initiated into the RCIA program at the 9:00 a.m. Mass.

A Sunday evening gathering served as an emotional conclusion to the day. Along with Marlene, Serbando and Hilda, Elly Jordan, from the SHARE office in Washington, D. C. and parishioners, Phyllis Zimmer, Rachael Flener, and Ann Suellentrop walked to the front platform barefoot. With the reading of a blessing for each traveler, another person came forward to anoint their feet. Several persons remarked that this reminded them of the story of the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet.

Individuals seated in the audience passed around white crosses. Each person added one or two names to a cross from the list of 32 family members from Buen Pastor killed during the war. The seven travelers each took one cross to pack in a suitcase for their trip to the Vigil to Close the School of the Americas in Georgia the next weekend.

The visitors shared their thoughts with the gathering. “Buen Pastor is one of the best communities in El Salvador because we have a sistering relationship with Good Shepherd,” said Serbando.

“I have six children. “I don’t want my children to leave El Salvador and come to the United States,” said Hilda in her introduction. “The reason we’re able to do our work at UCRES is because of Good Shepherd.”

“The government of our country thinks there is no poverty because we have beans and rice and tortillas. I fear that my children do not get enough of the right foods,” Marlene responded, her voice tearful.

After a full weekend, Monday morning started with an opportunity for the visitors to meet with the editorial board at the Kansas City Star.

“I was so proud of our Salvadorans as they spoke eloquently about their community, political concerns, and the importance of the 20-year sistering relationship,” remarked their driver, Eileen Thoni.

To the attentive group of journalists, Serbando said, “I teach two sessions at a rural school. I work for twelve hours and make $16 a day. I had to work and go to school in order to get my education. I went without food and sleep many times.”

One of the journalists asked what would happen if the United States completely closed its border.

“Immigration would slow decline. We would survive but be poor,” said Marlene

“Currently most people in El Salvador eat meat only once a month. At Buen Pastor we are able to eat meat once a week,” Marlene continued.

The Salvadorans mentioned that in their country only people with power get their voices heard. As they listened to the editors discuss articles for the paper on various community concerns, they learned that our countries have similar problems.

Tuesday night Father Francis provided a typical Thanksgiving feast in his home. Invited guests responded to the question, “What outstanding memory do you have of this week?”

Both Jesse Olivarez and Jeff Flener agreed that the opportunities to get to know Hilda and Marlene and Serbando first-hand topped their list. Their wives, both Rachel and Rachael, were former travelers.

Wednesday was a full day beginning with the all-school Mass. The guests provided principal Ann McGuff with a rosary made by the woman’s group at Buen Pastor. Hilda and Serbando made presentations to all grade levels in the school library and all ate lunch with the 8th grade students.

Marlene met with a group of Familia mothers. (See separate article.)

Later in the afternoon Teresa Aley and Sarah Stephens showed Marlene and Serbando the DVD of the twenty-year twinning. All cried as the pictures from Buen Pastor’s struggle flowed across the screen.

“If we don’t have God in our hearts, we will fail,” concluded Serbando.

The long day was not over. Serbando and Marlene spoke to two sessions of Kids Creed/RAFT. They shared the story of water at Buen Pastor. Through translators, Maria Tagle at the first session, and Esmeralda Peterson at the second,

“Much of the water in El Salvador is polluted. At Buen Pastor, it is clean. Thanks to Good Shepherd we have a pump, which provides water to each house. A new irrigation system carries the used water away from the houses,” said Serbando.

Thursday evening provided the opportunity for an evaluation of the tour.

“I never thought the opportunity to visit the United States was possible,” started Hilda. “Buen Pastor and you gave me this chance.”

“I hope you will forgive us if we made mistakes or didn’t express ourselves well enough,” said Marlene. When told that hundreds of people had made this opportunity possible, she put her hands to her face in surprise. “I have so much to share with my community when I get home. You love me too much.”

And so, tired travelers left their Shawnee family the next morning. Tired host parishioners remembered Serbando’s words from earlier in the visit, “If God wills it, it will go well.”

And it did.

By Mary Morin

Suzanne Egger awaited the arrival of her Familia group*. Nine mothers came with their children and snacks ready to meet their guest Marlene, one of three recent Salvadoran visitors to Good Shepherd.

Through translator, Ann Suellentrop, Marlene shared her story.

“My parents died during the war. I went to an orphanage where the treatment of children was not good. Men raped the girls. I forget so much, and it is sad to remember the bad times. It is part of my journey.

“I went to live with an aunt who moved to Buen Pastor. Often I called her mother.

“When I was 19, I fell in love with Réne and together we had a child, Julissa. When the baby was just three months old, Réne died in an accident. I was 21, alone, with a baby to raise. I thought about leaving but decided to stay in the community.

“Later I fell in love with Jésus. We have a son, Kevin. Jésus is good to the children and to me. I love him very much. We work hard to support our children.

“Jésus works six days a week, 14 hours a day and makes $10 a day. I work two days a week cleaning houses in San Salvador. I make $16 a day. I also make meat pies and sell them in the community.”

Kristina Frank asked Marlene about education in El Salvador.

“Education, public as well as private, is not free in El Salvador. Scholarships provided by Good Shepherd help keep students in school. At El Buen Pastor, high school students receive a scholarship of $385 a year. Middle school students receive scholarships of $275 a year. This covers tuition, fees, transportation and supplies.”

Sarah Jacobson asked, “Are you able to buy good food for your children?” (Later Sarah told me, “It was amazing to hear how her faith has been important to her and keeps her going. Hearing Marlene’s story really put a “face” to it. After listening to Marlene, I think we have greatly impacted many people’s lives in El Buen Pastor.”)

“I do without so that my children can get enough food. But, I fear they do not get the right kind of nutrition.”

“You give from your wants for your children. We give from our abundance. It isn’t the same sacrifice,” responded Sarah.

As the mothers learned what Marlene did to support her family, tears welled up in everyone’s eyes.

The group presented Marlene with a plaque with a picture of Mary holding baby Jesus. “I don’t have things to put on the walls of my home. This is wonderful!”

As the group left Suzanne’s home, some of the mothers pressed money into my hands. ”I only wanted you to hear Marlene’s story,” I said.

“We know but buy something for the children or school supplies, just something.”

I told Marlene what I had received. “Look! We can go shopping!”

“I’d rather take the money so that I can share it with others in the community who have needs too. If that is okay?”

“Yes, please take the money.”

The next day I received an excited phone call from Suzanne. “We talked for an hour after you left. We never understood the twinning relationship before, but we do now. We shouldn’t quit sending money to Buen Pastor for there are still many needs, especially regarding education. We want to sponsor a scholarship as a group. To whom do we send thank you notes for allowing us to have this opportunity to hear Marlene’s story?”

Make me an instrument of your peace passes through my mind. We just provided the opportunity.

One mother spoke.

Other mothers listened.

All were moved by the experience.

The experience will never be forgotten.

*This women’s group meets bi-monthly. For three and a half years they read and studied materials put together by Familia. Meetings typically include Gospel reflection, catechesis, and study of various Papal documents covering topics such as marriage and family, Mary, and prayer.

Faith and Hope in a Time of Crisis:  Solidarity for Just Trade, Human Rights, and a Sustainable Environment in
El Salvador Today

 Featuring: Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gomez, and other visitors from El Salvador 

September 15 & 16, 2007
Milwaukee, WI 

See the website for more information!

Chicago Public Radio posted this speech by Raul Moreno—Professor of Economics, University of El Salvador, President of the Board of Directors, CIS (Center for Interchange and Solidarity) and Policy Consultant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, FESPAD.
 
Interpreted by Leslie Schuld

By Ian McRae
Given March 24, 2007 at St. Andrew’s Christian Church

Some years ago, I had the privilege of hearing Dom Helder Camara, then Archbishop of the diocese of Recife and Olinda in eastern Brazil.  A man of the people, Dom Helder Camara always rode public transportation in Recife.  He reports the following experience.

One day in Recife, he say down beside an eight year old boy riding the bus and asked him what he was doing.  “I’m taking my ant for a ride,” replied the boy. And sure enough, he had a little stick in his hand and an ant was crawling up one side and down the other.  So Dom Helder told him about his ants. Every day he  would visit with his ants in the garden. He reached an agreement with them that he would put out honey every day if they would leave his flowers alone.  Said Dom Helder:  “The little boy didn’t think I was putting him on. It seemed like a perfectly normal conversation. So I decided to tell him about Aunt Claudia.

One day, I was talking with my aunts and noticed that Claudia was having trouble getting around.  So I went into the house and got the first aid kit. I came out and found Claudia. I picked her up and turned her over.  And she saw the sky for the first time!  And all of a sudden, she forgot about her sore feet because she had a new vision of what life could be.”

Oscar Romero had an experience that was at once very similar yet totally different.  The year was 1977, the place San Salvador.  The aged Luis Chavez was completing his term as Archbishop.  There was considerable debate about his successor. The wealthy landowners, conservative politicians and most church leaders were deeply bothered by that new understanding of the gospel called liberation theology and that new form of the church called base communities. They wanted a candidate who would discourage the leftward thrust of some rural parish priests and a few parishioners.  Oscar Romero was their ideal candidate.  While he had watched with interest as the reforms of the Second Vatican Council brought changes to the church, he was highly suspicious of what he saw as a radical endorsement of a non-capitalist economy and the practice of encouraging ordinary church members to interpret the scripture. 

But within three weeks, the Archbishop had a new vision of what was going on in his country though it was far from Aunt Claudia’s first look at the sky.  Not a view of the heavens but the death of a dear friend, the Jesuit Rutilio Grande, murdered for his justice seeking activities.

Most of you know the story of Oscar Romero. You have read James Brockman’s excellent biography, you have seen the movie. Some of you have visited the simple home where he lived. Some of you may even have known him personally.   Within a few months of being appointed archbishop, he became a changed man. He added to his weekly radio broadcast what he called “hechos de la semana,” the news of the week.  Those 1 1/2 hour broadcasts reached over 70% of rural Salvadoreans.  In 1978, one year after being named Archbishop, he decided to keep a diary.  The very first item on March 31, 1978 begins:   “The most important meeting today was one we had with lawyers we had brought together to ask them for legal help with so many cases of abuses of human rights.”

How best to remember this man?  How best to learn from him?  How best to celebrate his life?

One is tempted to use just his own words.  He wrote so widely and so well.  That diary which covers only the last two years of his life runs to 536 pages – of small print!  But to limit ourselves to his personal statements would be to deny a major point that he made.  He insisted that he was interpreting the gospel for the El Salvador of his time and that our responsibility was to speak the Word for the situation in which we live.  Here are his words. “The church can be the church only as long as it ¬ goes on being the body of Christ.  Its mission will be authentic only so long as it is the mission of Jesus in the new situations, the new circumstances of history. . . it is the church’s duty in history to lend its voice to Christ so that he may speak,  its feet so that he may walk in today’s world.”

Of the many values incarnate in the life of Oscar Romero, two seem to me to call for particular attention as we seek in our day to be followers of the Way.  First, we must find how to stand over against the values of the dominant culture.  Henri Nouen, another saint of the church, friend of the poor and of those troubled in body or in mind, states the matter well. “You are Christian only as long as you pose critical questions to the society you live in, as long as you emphasize the need of conversion both for yourself and for the world, as long as you in no way let yourself become established in the situation of the world, as long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come.”

To confront the dominant culture can be a dangerous and a lonely business.  I was told of a minister who returned one summer to the University of Chicago Divinity School as part of his sabbatical.  Married with children 10 and 8, it was fortunate that one of the professors was going to be away on leave and needed someone to stay in his Hyde Park house close to the university. Those are great three story homes and the two children slept in a large bedroom on the third floor.  One night after the children were in bed, the parents were reading downstairs when one of those ferocious Chicago thunderstorms hit.

After a few moments, the father decided to go upstairs to see how the children were getting along. Just as he opened their bedroom door, a flash of lightning lit up the whole room and the thunder crashed.  “Isn’t this wonderful,”, said the father, “can’t you just feel the presence of God up here.”  The ten year old looked at him for a moment and then replied: “You can stay up here with God if you want, I’m going downstairs with mother where it’s safe.”

Oscar Romero like the rest of us wanted to play it safe, would have preferred it that way.  But that is not an option for those who stand over against their dominant cultures.
 
Annie Dillard, surely one of the more stimulating writers of our time, graphically describes the condition of too many church members. “Why do people in churches seem like cheerful passengers on a package tour of the Absolute?  On the whole I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible to the conditions.  Does anyone have the foggiest idea of what sort of power we so blithely invoke?  It is madness to wear hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.  For the sleeping God may wake someway and take offense, or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return.”

Here are Romero’s words as he paraphrased scripture:  “Those who would save their lives – that is those who want to get along, who don’t want commitments, who don’t want to get into problems, who want to stay outside of a situation that demands the involvement of us all – they will lose their lives.

What a terrible thing, to have lived quite comfortably, with no suffering, not getting involved in problems, quite tranquil, quite settled, with good connections politically, economically, socially, lacking nothing, having everything,  They will lose their lives.”  He broke with the culture in which he lived; we must do the same.

A second theme that shines through the life of Archbishop Romero is his concern for the poor.  Here are his words: “A church that does not join the poor in order to speak out from the side of the poor against injustices committed against them is not the true church of Jesus Christ.”  That is, for Romero, to stand with the poor becomes an essential criterion of what it means to be the church.  What does that imply for us?  Where do we start? Where do we stop?   Millions in this richest country in human history have to choose between adequate food, a decent place to live, and desperately needed medical care.   What do we make of a system that gives millions of dollars in bonuses to the already wealthy while the helping agencies have to stretch their budgets to meet the needs of a growing number of the truly needy.  We label the undocumented poor “illegal aliens” and think that building a fence is the solution to the problem.  The nations of the world call what is going on in Darfur “genocide” but do nothing about it.  Will the list never stop!

The danger is that we move from indifference to concern to frustration that we cannot solve the problems.  Here are his words:  “We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that this enables us to do something, and to do it very well.  We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the ‘master’ builder and the worker.  We are the ministers not the Messiah.  We are the prophets of a future that is not our own.”

The Quaker, Harry Bonaro Overstreet puts the matter even more bluntly. “You say the little efforts that I make will do no good.  They never will prevail to tip the scales when justice hangs in the balance. I don’t think I was ever sure that they would. But I am prejudicial beyond debate in favor of my right to choose which side shall feed the stubborn ounces of my weight.”

To paraphrase Hebrews 11, time would fail me to tell of Archbishop Romero’s life of prayer and bible study, his steady commitment to the church even while being rejected by so many of the church leaders, his pastoral care of his flock – his diary is called A Shepherd’s Diary, his skill as a preacher and a teacher.

My wife, Cynthia, was for many years the teacher of a pre-school that met in a church where we were members. One day, I called the home of one of her four year olds wanting to talk to the mother about some church business. The four year old answered the phone and when I said I wanted to speak to his mother, he politely asked “Who is calling?”  Later his mother told me that he had turned to her and said “Someone on the phone is using Mrs. McCrae’s name.”

I was being accepted in that home because I came in the name of one who was trusted, who was loved.

We celebrate this night in the name of Oscar Romero. Here are his words:  “Easter is itself the cry of victory. No one can quench the life that Christ has resurrected. Neither death nor all the banners of death and hatred raised against him and his church can prevail. He is the victorious one.  Lent, thus, is the call to celebrate our redemption in that difficult combination of cross and victory.”

We go forth in the name of Jesus Christ.  Here are his words:  “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has appointed me to preach good news to the poor. He  has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Let it be so for us.

On Friday March 23, 2007 former ambassador to El Salvador, Robert White, was in El Salvador.  He was ambassador there in 1980 and 1981.  While in El Salvador White appeared on a panel at the Jesuit University titled “El Salvador, Fifteen Years Afterwards: Another Reading.” Robert White is President of the Center for International Policy.

Former ambassador White directed his comments  to a recent attempt by government party (ARENA) members in the National Assembly to name Roberto D’Aubuisson  “Meritorious Son of the Nation.”  While the attempt to do this failed, the intention to accord D’Aubuisson this honor shocked not only millions of Salvadorans, but also White.  To those present (and later in a press interview) Ambassador White enumerated documented proofs of D’Aubuisson’s involvement in the death squads which listed people to be assassinated, and in the particular death of Romero.  He offered to provide the ARENA Party this documentation.

Robert White cited the  CIA, State Department and the Truth Commission of El Salvador’s Report in his documentation.  It wasn’t a surprise when the ARENA Party leaders in El Salvador dismissed the documented information.  Truth for many politicians is simply what you declare it to be.  However it was very surprising when after Mass on Sunday  March 25th the Archbishop of San Salvador, Fernando Sáenz Lacalle, said:

“The important thing is that these things (that White says) not be private declarations but rather that they be official.  If they are legal proofs, they should be presented to the court.”

The Archbishop went on to say:

“The ex-ambassador White is a very problematic person.  One has to take into account these characteristics of his personality before paying attention to what he says.*

*Source: El Diario de Hoy, Monday March 26, 2007, page 6.

What is the Archbishop trying to say? These documents aren’t private opinions. They are official documentation:

These documents were presented to the Truth Commission for El Salvador, a United Nations sponsored and Peace Accords mandated commission charged with identifying the worst human rights violations during the civil war and establishing responsibility wherein it was possible.  The Commission declared at the end of its study that Roberto D’Aubuisson was the intellectual author of Archbishop  Romero’s death.   

These are original documents from the archives of the US Government, documentation that occurred at the time the events were happening.

These documents have not been used in any trial in El Salvador because El Salvador has seen to it that no trials take place. These documents have not been used either in the trial of ex- Captain Alvaro Saravia or Robert D’Aubuisson in El Salvador because these men were never placed on trial.

In 1987 Alvaro Saravia was captured in Miami, but the Supreme Court of El Salvador prevented his extradition back to his home country to be tried.  D’Aubuisson died of throat cancer in February of 1992 shortly after the end of the war and prior to the Truth Commission’s Report. 

The Inter-American Court on Human Rights has demanded that El Salvador open the case of the Assassination of Archbishop Romero so that justice can be achieved.  El Salvador has not done so, using the Amnesty Law of 1993 as an excuse, though it’s not an excuse accepted by the Inter-American Court.

In the September 2004 US Federal Court in Modesto, California handed down a decision against ex-Captain Alvaro Saravia of El Salvador.  Saravia, who has passed the years since Romero’s assassination in the USA,  was declared responsible for helping organize the murder of Archbishop Romero with D’Aubuisson and D’Aubuisson was named as the mastermind of this assassination. 

Conclusion

Archbishop Sáenz Lacalle had no objective basis to suggest Robert White’s comments were of a private, not a public or official nature.  In doing so he weighed in with those forces in El Salvador that deny the truth when it is inconvenient.  There is one group in El Salvador that denies the involvement of its founder in Romero’s death: the ARENA Party.   Who and what is Archbishop Sáenz Lacalle supporting?

In labeling former Ambassador White as a problematic person who possesses personality characteristics that detract from his credibility is malicious.
 
Ambassador White is held in high regard in the US and within the human rights and legal communities. Not only is this an unfair judgment, but it involves the dismissal of public documentation deemed of the highest quality by the Truth Commission and US Federal Count in Modesto, California.  Again, who and what is Archbishop Sáenz Lacalle supporting? 

If you believe that these ill informed and slanderous comments by the Archbishop about former ambassador’s white’s credibility regarding the involvement of Roberto D’aubuisson in the death of Archbishop Romero  are unjustifiable,  please send your comments to the Vatican Secretary of State.  Archbishop Sáenz Lacalle’s behavior is scandalous to thousands of Catholics in and outside of El Salvador.

 For flier, go here. (This is a PDF file.)

Archbishop Oscar Romero Prayer Celebration
Saturday,  March 24    7:00PM  
Saint Andrew Christian Church, Disciples of Christ
13890 W. 127th
Olathe, KS
Reception following the service.

National Catholic Reporter’s John L. Allen, Jr. has both reported and analyzed the news that Jesuit Fr. Jon Sobrino has been censured by the Vatican. Sobrino has been one of the great voices for the poor and oppressed of El Salvador.

For the report, go here.

For the analysis, go here.

Pauline Dolan, a member of Visitation parish, is in El Salvador right now and sent this report:

Sunday’s paper, “La Prensa Grafica,” here in El Salvador had an article on Jon Sobrino.  On Thursday the Vatican will sanction him.  His sanction is described as “absolute silence”.  He will not be able to teach in any “eclesiatical center” or publish any books with the ‘nihil obstat’ of the Catholic Church.  He is being sanctioned by the Vatican’s Congregation of Doctrine and Faith”.

(The following is my translation of parts of the article) 

Though the official letter/document of sancition is signed by the present director of the Congregation, Cardinal Joseph Levada, “the inquisitions against Sobrino stared earlier when the Congregation was directed by Joseph Ratzinger, the present Pope.  Sobrino is accused of ‘not affiriming openly the divine conscience of the historic Jesus’.  Sobrino and the Jesuits of which he is a member, have known for months the contents of the sanction.  Rome had asked Sobrino to rectify his position in writing before they condemned him.

According to the Spanish paper “El Mundo”, Sobrino informed his Superior, Father Kolvenbach, about his  sanction and Father Kolvenbach’s reply was “Think it over and whatever decision you make you will be supported by the Jesuits.”

By Gigi Gruenke

Rufina Amaya, the only survivor of the Massacre of El Mozote entered Eternal Life at 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday, March 6, 2007.  At last she is with her God, her children and husband, victims of the massacre, and all of the almost 1,000 El Mozote massacre victims for whom she worked tirelessly these past 25 years. 

The death of Rufina came as a surprise.  Though not in good health, she was busy meeting with visitors, working in her parish and caring for her family up to the day of her death.  She arrived at the hospital in San Miguel just 10 hours prior to her death, caused by a series of strokes and a final heart attack.  Rufina’s oldest daughter, Fidelia, and  her youngest, Maria, were with her.  Fidelia escaped death because she wasn’t in El Mozote that terrible December 11, 1981.  Maria was born some four years after the massacre.

To manage to survive this brutal massacre was extremely dangerous and difficult.  In her testimony Rufina talks about this. 

“ When we (the group of women herded by the soldiers) arrived at the house of Israel Márquez, I could see the mountain of bodies of people shot to death.  The other women began to hold onto each other screaming and crying.  I knelt down, thinking of my four children.  In that very moment I turned halfway around and threw myself behind a bush.  With my foot I pulled a branch over me so that my feet would be hidden from the soldiers standing close-by. 

Rufina asked God for enlightenment as to how she might stay alive as a witness: how she might escape.  After hours of lying still and barely breathing, listening to her children cry out, to the women being killed, while the soldiers took a break in the middle of the night she began her escape.  At one point she was seen and shot at and pursued by the soldiers.  Much later  Rufina reached a patch of tall grass close to the river.  She remained there 8 days until she was discovered by her friend Matilde and her family.  Together they cried and cried for their massacred loved ones.

Fifteen days following the massacre some international journalists (including writers from the New York Times and Washington Post) arrived and interviewed Rufina.  She forced herself to speak clearly about the unimaginable massacre of the almost 1,000 children, women and men, all civilians, on the 11th and 12th of December.  Then, with the journalists she returned to El Mozote.  She hoped to find the remains of her 4 children, aged 9 years to 8 months, and her husband.  Because their bodies were burned, she couldn’t identify their remains. 

Rufina Amaya never ceased to speak the truth about this horrendous massacre…to her government, to the Truth Commission established by the Peace Accords ending the Salvadoran civil war, to human rights groups, to the U.S. Congress, to her people, to all who cared to listen.

Thanks to Tutela Legal, the Archdiocesan Human Rights Office, and particularly to Dr. Maria Julia Hernández, the director, the armed forces and government of El Salvador will hopefully not continue to enjoy the denial and impunity (legal protection) they’ve experienced these past 25 years.  The Inter-American Court on Human Rights has heard the El Mozote case and will soon present a verdict to the government of El Salvador.  The case was argued by Tutela Legal on the basis that it was a “crime against humanity” and as such was outlawed by the Geneva Conventions which El Salvador has endorsed. 

Hundreds of people from the villages surrounding Quebrachos in Morazán, where Rufina lived, from the town of Segundo Montes, El Mozote and from all over Morazán  came to say good-bye to her on March 7,8 and 9th.   The funeral mass took place on Friday March 9 in front of the church in the center of El Mozote, the place of the massacre 25 years earlier.  The two parish priests serving Quebrachos, Frs. Juan José Cruz and John Spain, Maryknoll,  joined Fr. Rogelio Ponselle as presiders. 

During the homily, filled with conviction and emotion, Fr. Rogelio, her friend during these 25 years, spoke of Rufina as a women of truth.  She never ceased to speak the truth, even when lies seemed to overwhelm the truth in quantity and strength.  He spoke of how Rufina dedicated her life to stop state level impunity, insisting that responsibility for evil must be recognized by the perpetrators before there can be forgiveness.  The truth must be recognized; then we can pardon.  Father Rogelio spoke of impunity as one of the greatest sicknesses in the world.  It permits horrors to be repeated. 

Father Rogelio spoke of the strength and courage of Rufina.  She proclaimed the truth up to the last day of her life.  She once said “ I am a fearful women.  It is God who has given me the strength to speak.”  Finally, comparing Rufina with Mary of the Magnificat, the priest pointed out the as Mary, Rufina was a poor woman without pretentions.  She accepted her mission from God, as did Mary.  She never strayed from telling the truth and seeking accountability.  As Mary, she knew that God takes down the powerful from their thrones and exhalts the humble.  At the end of the mass Santiago, the director of the Museum of the Word and a long time friend,  pointed out that “Rufina Amaya demonstrated that history can be written by the poor, by the people at the bottom.” 

The body of Rufina Amaya is resting in the cemetery at El Mozote beside the remains of the victims of the massacre, including her children and husband.  The plaque in front of the cemetery now includes Rufina in its message:

THEY HAVE NOT DIED.
THEY ARE WITH US
AND WITH YOU
AND WITH ALL OF HUMANITY.

May we remain faithful to the truth, to justice and to God’s call in each of us to act faithfully and courageously throughout our life’s journey.

Gigi Gruenke is a Maryknoll Lay Missioner in El Salvador.