The Martyrs of El Salvador

The other blogging Sister of St. Joseph of Peace, Susan Francois, has a moving memory of encountering the Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador during a Congregation Experience there a year and a half ago. I have now walked many times in the rose garden at the University of Central America that now blooms where six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter were killed - a rose garden planted by Elba Ramos' husband, Celina Ramos' father, in memory of all that was lost on the 16th of November, 1989. Here is a rose from that garden (photo by Jane Halsey).

I am always glad that Elba and Celina Ramos are remembered along with the Jesuit Fathers Ignacio Ellacuria, Ignacio Martín Baró, Amando López Quintana, Segundo Montes Mozo, Joaquin López y López, and Juan Ramón Moreno Pardo. Like so many Salvadorans during the Civil War years, they died because they were at the wrong place, in the way, witnesses to murder. Ignacio Ellacuria and his companions were killed because they, like Monseñor Oscar Romero, spoke for the poor, the vulnerable, the voiceless - the Elbas and Celinas.

May the roses bloom this November day over the garden where their blood was shed.