"Catechists and Commissars" by Piers Paul Read

Catechists and Commissars | Piers Paul Read | An excerpt from "Hell" in Hell and Other Destinations: A Novelist's Reflections on This World and the Next

Last November in El Salvador, after twenty years of civil war, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) made an all-out attack on San Salvador, the capital city. Fifteen hundred guerillas came down from the volcano which overlooks some of the smartest suburbs. Others, in the barrios, dug up weapons which had been hidden in readiness for this offensive. Several areas of the city were occupied, and mortars were fired at the President's home. However, there was no general uprising against the government, and after ten days of fighting the guerillas withdrew.

Up to three thousand people were killed in the course of this offensive, either in battle, or caught in the cross-fire, or killed in cold blood. Most horrifying of all, to the outside world, was the murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and the housekeeper's daughter. It happened on the night of 16 November, on the campus of their University of Central America. All the Jesuits were distinguished academics, five of them born and trained in Spain, but resident in El Salvador for so many years that the Rector of the University, Fr Ignacio Ellacuria, had become a national figure. According to the provincial of the Society of Jesus, Fr Tojeira, he was regarded by the President, Alfredo Christiani, as 'the only critical and yet constructive political opposition he had in the country'.

These Jesuits were neither the first nor the most notable Catholic priests to have been killed in El Salvador. Between 1977 and 1981, ten met violent ends, among them a Jesuit, Fr Rutilio Grande. Many catechists, church workers and members of the Christian base communities have been among the 70,000 slaughtered. In 1980 four American women missionaries were raped and then murdered by National Guardsmen. In March of the same year, the Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was shot dead with a single bullet as he was celebrating Mass.

To understand this apparent persecution of the Catholic Church in a Catholic country, one must go back to the deliberations of the Second Vatican Council, called by Pope John XXIII in 1963 in which there was a shift in emphasis from a purely spiritual and self-contained concept of Catholicism to one which was open to and appreciated what was good in the world at large.

In particular the material and the social aspirations of man were deemed good, and a commitment made to help the poor. 'The Church encompasses in her love all those who are afflicted by human misery, and she recognizes in those who are poor and who suffer, the image of her poor and suffering founder. She does all in her power to relieve their need, and in them she strives to serve Christ.'

Such solicitude for the unfortunate was not new. Numerous religious orders had been founded specifically to do charitable work. In the past, however, they had sought to alleviate the symptoms of suffering rather than do anything about the cause. Now, the Council suggested, 'the best way to fulfil one's obligation to justice and love is to contribute to the common good according to one's means and the needs of others, even to the point of fostering public and private organizations devoted to the bettering of conditions of life.' 'Thus,' said the fathers, with a certain optimism, 'there will arise a generation of new men, the moulders of a new humanity.'

Read the entire essay...

Comments

[Peter]

That was an excellent read, and one that answered many questions I had about how a Catholic country can turn against the Church and Christ. I realized my understanding of more recent history is even worse than I thought.

[joe]

I am reminded of the comments by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa — Preacher to the papal household — in a that in Latin America many Catholics say "When we need a labor union we go to our parish priest; when we need the word of God we go to the Protestant pastor," and that, "In Latin America the Catholic Church has made an option for the poor and the poor have opted for the Protestant Churches."