![]() So when the news broke of the killing of the Jesuits and their friends, it struck close to home since I knew him. I knew Jon Cortina and Jon Sobrino better earlier when we were in philosophy together at St. Louis and had followed their work a bit more in recent years. My impression, then, is of people (like Juan Moreno and Cortina and Sobrino, and the people who worked with them) of great conviction who speak of that conviction despite its danger. These are Jesuit brothers of great stature and I am proud to be able to say that I knew them. My prayers are with them and the people that they have influenced. I am glad that we are taking the time to remember such a momentous event. My hope is that they all did not die in vain. -
Tom Shanahan, S.J.
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Zack Zuercher, S.J.
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John Horn, S.J.
The second emotion I feel is deep anger. Though we eventually cut off funding for this war, I am deeply angry that my government had a hand in this elimination of my brothers, precisely because they were voices of truth that spoke out against injustice. And Elba and Celina were murdered so there would be no witnesses. To this day, we have not admitted what happened, so that the story would be told and a commitment would be make to change our involvement in these dirty wars. The third emotion is deeper passion for a greater solidarity with the poor here and around the world. Remembering the martyrs of El Salvador gives me more courage and a greater desire to know those who are oppressed and to be on their side, by more freely speaking out against unjust structures, on their behalf. -
Andy Alexander, S.J.
But I simply couldn't believe that anyone would go in and shoot the whole community in so public and well-known a place as a Jesuit University. It made me realize the great impunity with which the Salvadoran military operated - with lots of money from the U.S. When I learned later that the killers had been trained in the U.S. at Ft. Benning's infamous "School of the Americas," my outrage increased. But it was a year later, on the first anniversary of their martyrdom, that I really understood and felt deeply the tragic injustice of this cowardly murder - and the thousands of other murders committed by the army and death squads it summed up. I clearly and sadly and angrily comprehended the deceit and malice it represented on the part of both the government and the military. As I witnessed the killing fields of the murders, contemplated the graphic photos and paintings, marched and sang in the procession, and celebrated the Eucharist with Jesuits from around the world and thousands of Salvadorans, I also felt in my heart the triumphant joy that always accompanies true martyrdom. And these 8 people are truly martyrs! I not only prayed for them and with them, but through them and through the thousands of martyrs that fell in Salvador. How fitting that the land of "Our Savior" now echoed with these voices of blood! -
Bert Thelen, S.J.
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