SMC lecture series focus on martyrs
By KATIE MCVOY
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Last night began a series of Lenten lectures at Saint Mary's on the martyrs of El Salvador. Marie Dennis, director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, will be giving the lectures in Stapleton Lounge Monday and Tuesday nights as well.
The lectures will focus on the men and women martyred in El Salvador during the 17-year civil war.
Sunday's lecture focused on Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated in the diocese of San Salvador in 1980. Dennis used Romero's story to illustrate the importance of finding life in the resurrection.
From 1975 to 1992, approximately 75,000 people were killed in the Salvadoran civil war. Although geo-political interests, and not religious motivations fueled the war, many of those who died were church workers who were martyred for their faith. Ninety-two percent of the killings were committed by the army or army groups, said Dennis.
At that time the Catholic Church in El Salvador underwent a change. Religious workers were invited to accompany the poor.
"The church moved from traditional church work to the reality of poverty," Dennis said. "The theology of liberation began to emerge, and this theology intersected with political and ideological ideas."
Romero was the Archbishop of the diocese of San Salvador. Early in his career he was very conservative, but following the death of his close friend Rutilio Grande, he underwent a transformation. According to Ernestino Rivera, a close friend of Romero's, Grande's words passed into Romero.
Romero became a servant of the people. As his vision of how life in El Salvador became sharper, he was pulled more and more by opposing forces. On one side he was urged by revolutionaries to confront the government. On the other hand, he was encouraged by wealthy citizens and other bishops of the church to settle down. He would often "pull away to prayer, almost expecting an answer. It seems he often got them," Dennis said.
Romero was assassinated at the Chapel of Divina Providencia on March 24, 1980. Moments before his death he said, "As a Christian, I don't believe in death without resurrection. If am killed, I will rise again in the people of El Salvador."
Dennis said that the challenge for today's Catholic is to look at the story as we journey to new creation in the Lenten season.
"We too are invited to allow the blood nourished seeds of liberation to grow in our souls to move with [Romero] in the current of history that knows death is not the end."
When asked what was especially poignant about this story for today's college student, Dennis said that the oppression happened to students as well.
"Some of the worst repression occurred in the universities because the students were organizing for a social change. Many fled the country and didn't return to their lives until they were in their thirties. You are living the years that were stolen away."
The lectures will continue this week. Monday night's lecture will focus on four women missionaries martyred in El Salvador and Tuesday night's lecture will focus on Jesuit martyrs. The lectures will both take place at 7 p.m. in Stapleton lounge.
All News Stories for Monday, March 6, 2000
