Rutilio Grande was born in El Paisnal, El Salvador, in 1928. He became a Jesuit Priest in 1959, and in the mid-1960’s, emboldened by Vatican II, he had a part in transforming the Salvadoran clergy. He ministered to the poor, and encouraged others to instill a sense of dignity and human worth in their peasant congregations. He spoke of social justice.
On February 13, 1977, he preached, “I’m quite aware that very soon the Bible and the gospel won’t be allowed to cross our borders. We’ll only get the bindings, because all the pages are subversive. And I think that if Jesus himself were to cross the border to Chalatenango, they wouldn’t let him in. They would accuse the man…of being a rabble-rouser, a foreign Jew, one who confused the people with exotic and foreign ideas, ideas against democracy – that is, against the wealthy minority, the clan of Cains! Brothers and sisters, without any doubt, they would crucify him again. And God forbid that I be one of the crucifiers!”
On March 12, a month after he spoke those words, his car was sprayed with gunfire on a road near the place of his birth, and he died, along with an elderly friend and a teenage boy who were accompanying him.
His death marked a turning point in the life of his fellow priest and friend, the Archbishop of El Salvador, Fr. Oscar Romero. The assassination of Rutilio shocked Archbishop Romero to an understanding of the profound crisis that confronted El Salvador. He began to preach against the social and physical violence that was being visited upon the poor majority. In March of 1980, surrounded by a wave of death squads and societal chaos, he addressed the soldiers of the military during a Sunday sermon, “I want to make a special appeal to soldiers, national guardsmen, and policemen: each of you is one of us. The peasants you kill are your own brothers and sisters. When you hear a man telling you to kill, remember God’s words, ‘thou shalt not kill.’ No soldier is obliged to obey a law contrary to the law of God. In the name of God, in the name of our tormented people, I beseech you, I implore you; in the name of God I command you to stop the repression.”
On March 24, 1980, Archbishop Romero was assassinated while performing a mass at the small chapel near where he lived, on the grounds of a hospital. The Salvadoran Truth Commission, founded at the end of the civil war that lasted till 1992, found that Roberto D’Aubuisson ordered the murder. D’Aubuisson was the founder of the ARENA party, which still controls the Presidency of El Salvador. The current President, Tony Saca, visited D’Aubuisson’s grave this year to commemorate the date of his death, of cancer, in 1991.
Our delegation, with Lehigh Valley members Sarah Snider, Joe DeRaymond, and Tim Chadwick, will join Naed Smith and Linda Brindle of Harrisburg to honor the lives of Rutilio Grande and Oscar Romero. We will be joining a group of others from the United States to participate in the Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (CIS – Center for Exchange and Solidarity) eight day delegation, March 8 to March 16, around the commemoration of Rutilio Grande’s life. We will visit Salvadoran communities, talk with representatives of the government and civil society, and, most importantly, meet with people who are coping with a country still haunted by war, and unable to find social or economic justice in the framework of an oppressive economic system run from the north.
-Joe DeRaymond |
