PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Eighteen: Final Evening in the Guest House

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

8 October 1990, 7:00 PM - The Guest House

It is our final evening in El Salvador and many guests have been invited to the Guest House for a meal and discussion. Bishop Medardo Gomez arrives about 6:30 PM, accompanied by J. and J. This is a great honor for us; he rarely goes out after dark because of the threats against his life. He is immediately the center of attention, a quietly intense and imposing presence seated on one of the couches in the common room. After a few minutes the word goes out that we should gather around him. He wants to talk with us before the meal so that he can go home early and be ready for an early-morning departure for meetings in the U.S.

"For better or for worse, we have a process of peace going on in our country. It is not complete, but we are moving. Delegations like yours help to open this space. You are like a great choir, carrying the stories. I want to assure you that, even though you might not think so, your presence helps in the process for peace. Extend my thankfulness to the brothers and sisters in the United States for their solidarity and prayers. This is a great contribution for the building of peace here."

At this point he introduces Pastor W., from San Miguel, who is president of the eastern region of the Lutheran Church in El Salvador. Later I hear the opinion from several of the delegates who have been here before that Pastor W. is the apparent next Lutheran Bishop of El Salvador. He has the faith and commitment to working with the poor, plus the education needed to move comfortably in international circles.

Looking Back; Looking Forward

On the night of November 16, 1989, members of the Atlacatl Battalion, an elite corps of the Salvadoran army, invaded the residence of the Jesuit faculty of the Romero Center at the University of Central America (UCA) and slaughtered six teaching scholars, along with their housekeeper and her daughter.  Only Fr. Jon Sobrino, who was out of the country at the time, was spared from the massacre.

By that time civil war had raged in El Salvador for nearly a decade.  Strongly influenced by a Cold War mentality that viewed as a communist plot any attempt by the poor of Latin America to overthrow oppressive regimes, the U.S. was then funding the Salvadoran military at approximately one million dollars per day.  Some of that went to equip the death squads.  Much of the rest lined the pockets of corrupt military leaders.  Indeed, military officers were fast becoming the new wealthy power in the country, challenging the traditional oligarchy referred to as “the fourteen families.”