Excerpts: Enrique Dussel reflecting on Rutilio Grande

Upon receiving the news, Father Arrupe exclaimed in Rome on March 19 that “the news of the recent assassination in the Central American republic of El Salvador of Father Rutilio Grande seems to me a clear sign from the Lord. He had been preceded, in a short span, by Father João Bosco P. Brunier […] They were men of normal human qualities, of a hidden life, almost unknown, who lived in small towns, completely dedicated to the daily service of the poor and the suffering… They are, therefore, individual and indisputable testimonies of the line that General Congregation XXXII pointed out for the Society: service to the faith and the promotion of justice.”⁵⁸

Rutilio was born in the village of El Paisnal—near where he was killed—on July 5, 1928; he was baptized in Guazapa. He met the great Archbishop Chávez in 1938, to whom in May of ’40 he confessed his desire to become a priest. When shortly afterward he visited his town as a seminarian, “he gave the constant image of a candid, pure, and devout boy.”⁵⁹ At 17 he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Venezuela, pursued his studies in Quito, and from 1953 continued them in Oña (Spain). He also spent time at the Lumen Vitae institute in Brussels in 1963. After pedagogical experiences in El Salvador he went to IPLA in 1972, and, as we have said, took possession of the parish of Aguilares in 1972. In 1970 he had dared to stand up against the Episcopal Conference, which had judged unfavorably a Pastoral Week organized by Edgar Beltrán of CELAM. Rutilio came to say that “the Episcopal Conference, in criticizing the theology of liberation, the foundation of the pastoral week, had forgotten what Medellín had said about it.”⁶⁰ He had discovered the theology of liberation in 1969 at a general meeting of Central American Jesuits. In Quito he was alongside Marcos Reveló and with Higinio Alas.

His parish of Aguilares was a conflictive place. For this reason he immediately launched himself into the evangelization of the peasants through living communities. Of its 30,000 inhabitants, who worked principally in sugar, few were the landowners who in fact dominated the area with three large mills. The first pastoral stage, begun in January of 1973, was to carry out a great mission, with a new style, through which the natural leaders among the peasants could be identified. Delegates were chosen. On June 10, 1973, the Feast of Pentecost, the Christian community of Aguilares was born and the first stage came to an end. The religious concentration of the peasants, who came from their hamlets and towns, was such that it astonished the townspeople of Aguilares. There were 10 urban communities and 27 rural ones, with more than 300 animators. The second stage consisted in the formation of pastoral agents, the natural leaders of the communities. The delegates were the operative platform that energized and allowed the communities to grow. Courses and short courses were given. Leaders were sent for training. Rutilio communicated a spirit of responsibility, poverty, and collaboration. The delegates gradually took on the communities as their own work.

Simultaneous to the peasants’ acquiring Christian consciousness, it could not be avoided that they also acquired political consciousness. On May 24, 1973—six months after beginning the missionary experiences—the La Cabaña strike broke out, in which 1,600 sugar workers walked out. Rutilio was immediately accused of involving himself in politics, and with this he became a visible symbol for the peasants, of such dimensions that it would never cease to grow. Rutilio always insisted that his work and responsibility was exclusively to organize the evangelizing groups. But he was aware that this also led to political organization. Very soon FECCAS (Federación Cristiana de Campesinos) appeared in the parish. Rutilio never advised anyone to join, but the Christian leaders did so naturally.

On July 17, 1975, the Conservative Religious Front [Frente Religioso Conservador] accused the priests of being subversive. Rutilio answered them bravely, and “the devout boy of El Paisnal” was inflamed with holy anger, calling them “Hypocrites! Stop calling yourselves Catholics because you lie.” The parish of Aguilares had gained national importance. On December 21 of ’75, FECCAS held its first public demonstration in the parish. Rutilio insisted that his task was evangelizing and not political, but the ambiguity outwardly was impossible to clarify. By way of explanation to the archbishop, Rutilio exclaimed: “I know that I cannot oppose them—the unionized peasants—as a pastor, but on the contrary, I must try to enlighten them as Christians and from the standpoint of faith.” This crisis would only continue to grow.

Although the government attempted some reforms in agriculture, the wealthy landowning families opposed them tenaciously and demanded greater control over the clergy. Added to all this was the chaos of a fraud-filled change of government and a change of archbishop. On December 11 of ’76 the army occupied El Paisnal, his birthplace and part of his parish. Rutilio went to the site to investigate. The parish had drawn many others into beginning work in favor of the peasants. On February 13 of ’77 he delivered the fiery speech in favor of Father Bernal, who had been expelled.

On March 12 of ’77, Rutilio left in the afternoon, that Saturday, to preside over the Eucharist in El Paisnal. He was accompanied by Manuel Solórzano, 72 years old, and Nelson Rutilio Lemus, 16 years old. They were ambushed while crossing some fields in their jeep and machine-gunned—the bullets, according to a later forensic report, belonged to the police, Mantzer-brand weapons. Thousands of peasants gathered in the parish to bid final farewell to Rutilio, and more than 100,000 people gathered in the cathedral of San Salvador where the new archbishop Óscar Romero and Mons. Rivera Damas celebrated the liturgy. In the photos of these celebrations in memory of Rutilio one sees Father Alfonso Navarro, who would be killed on May 11 for the same causes and by the same assassins. It is important to remember that in 1969 Father Alfonso Navarro O., as cooperating vicar of the archdiocese, had headed, in signing, a letter in which a group of priests opposed the elevation of the archbishop of Guatemala to the cardinalate. This letter was supported by JEC, ACUS, MIIC, and other lay movements. Mons. Romero said in the homily: “Father Grande, without harming or violating his faithful in the practice of their popular religion, was forming among them a true community of faith, of hope, and of love, awakening awareness of their dignity as persons, of their fundamental rights proper to every human being, and also of their integral human development.”⁶¹

This major event in the history of El Salvador has at the same time been the most consciousness-raising event for the Church. Rutilio’s death had enormous impact among the peasant sectors, in the universities, in the middle classes and the professionals.

But the persecution has only begun. On April 22 they capture Rubén Zamora, member of the Justice and Peace commission of the archdiocese. On May 4 a bomb explodes in the print shop of the weekly Orientación. On the 5th, Father Jorge Sarsanedas, a Panamanian Jesuit, is expelled after being tortured. The attacks follow one after another, day after day, but the Church has made the resolution to confront the oligarchy and the militaristic State. The great revelation was the new archbishop, Mons. Óscar Romero Galdámez, who would become the standard-bearer of the oppressed of El Salvador, emulating the greatest pastors in the entire history of Central America since the sixteenth century. In the face of the assassination of the diocesan priest Alfonso Navarro Oviedo, pastor of Miramontes in the capital, the episcopate releases a message, “Before the wave of violence that brings mourning to the country”: “It is to aid Marxism to consider Marxists—citing the Chilean episcopate but in another context—or suspect of Marxism everyone who fights for human dignity, for justice and equality, who asks for participation, who opposes arrogance.”⁶²

Mons. Romero had said in the homily of June 19, in memory of Rutilio Grande: “Today it falls to me to come gather up this Church and this convent that have been profaned, a destroyed tabernacle, and above all this humiliated people […] We want to tell you, brothers, that your pain is the pain of the Church […] Aguilares is recounting the precious stanza of liberation […] We are witnesses of this pain, of this separation, we live it very closely because as Pastor we feel that wounded trust of those who seek through the Church an encounter with those whom cruelty has scattered […] Especially in this Latin American continent with its luminous documents of Medellín, which are authentic doctrine of the Church.”⁶³

One of the attendees said that “the archbishop’s sermon could not have been surpassed by Saint John Chrysostom. One will no longer be able to write about the Eucharist without having as a model this one of Aguilares, where, in an atmosphere of passion-resurrection, an air of festivity and thanksgiving was lived, at the same time as forgiveness and the Christian commitment to continue struggling for the liberation of the human being, to banish structural sin, and with a total participation of the people, who applauded, wept, and sang as never before.”⁶⁴

On June 21 of ’77 a group, the Unión Guerrera Blanca, announced an ultimatum in which they threatened with death all Jesuit priests of El Salvador, giving them a one-month deadline to leave the country.⁶⁵

Mons. Romero does not attend the investiture ceremonies of the new president, as a protest against all acts against human rights. For their part the Jesuits, through their provincial Father César Jerez—firmly supported by the General, Father Arrupe—release a message, “The Jesuits before the people,” in June of ’77, in which they explain that the causes of the accusations are unknown and it is not known who is outraged by what they might have done. The Jesuits, who have endured six bomb attacks on their university and 15 priests expelled from the country, and one of them killed, say: “It is well known that the peasantry constitutes the majority portion of the Salvadoran people. But the peasantry is also the sector most brutally affected by inhuman conditions of misery and marginalization.”⁶⁶

This [message: Jesuits before the people”] explains why Father Rutilio Grande was entrusted in 1972 with a rural, peasant parish. It also recalls the position of the Church at Medellín and the conclusions of the Jesuits’ XXXII General Congregation regarding “service to the faith and the promotion of justice.” As a consequence of these commitments, and invoking the Lord beforehand (“Come, Lord Jesus!” Rev. 22:30), they decide that none of them will leave El Salvador, for they hear “the cry of today’s Christian and of the poor who await the liberation the Lord brings and for which we struggle.”

References:

_{58. Mensaje 258 (1977), p. 214}

_{59. Rutilio Grande, supra, p. 15}

_{60. Ibid., p. 39}

_{61. Ibid., pp. 117-118}

_{62. Praxis de los Padres de América Latina, p. 976}

_{63. ECA 344 (1977), p. 433}

_{64. Signos de lucha y esperanza, p.334}

_{65. ICI 516 (1977), pp. 42-43}

_{66. ECA 344 (1977), pp. 434-450; Signos de lucha y esperanza, pp.184-187}

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