Santa Clara University

From the Center Director

In the early hours of Nov. 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her teenage daughter were brutally murdered by Salvadoran soldiers on the campus of the University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador, El Salvador. For speaking truth to power in war-ravaged El Salvador, for defending the poorest of the poor, and for ultimately promoting a faith that does justice without qualification, these Jesuits were considered traitors by certain members of El Salvador’s elite and so were summarily executed. The 20th anniversary of the Jesuit assassinations offers an important opportunity to reflect on the enduring legacy of the martyrs and to ask what this legacy could mean for Santa Clara University and for Jesuit higher education in the early 21st century.

This issue of explore is one piece of Santa Clara’s larger commemoration of this anniversary entitled The UCA Martyrs of El Salvador, Jesuit Education, and Santa Clara University: Commemorating Their Legacy and Celebrating Our Future. (For more on this, visit scu.edu/elsal20.) To remember our fallen Jesuit brothers and fellow educators is particularly appropriate in light of Santa Clara’s enduring relationship with UCA. In his 1982 SCU commencement address, then-UCA Rector (President) Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J., challenged all present with a new vision of a Christian university, one that “must take into account the gospel preference for the poor…to be a voice for those without voices.” Jon Sobrino, S.J., eminent UCA theologian and one Jesuit who survived the killings only because he was away from campus, sought refuge in Santa Clara’s Jesuit Community for several months after his community mates were assassinated. And Santa Clara’s Casa de la Solidaridad—an academic program for students from Jesuit universities throughout the United States to study in El Salvador—was launched on the tenth anniversary honoring the UCA martyrs. (For more on Casa, visit www.scu.edu/studyabroad/casa.)

The articles assembled here tell us why the Jesuits were killed, describe El Salvador today, and present various perspectives on a vibrant legacy and how it does or should impact Jesuit and Catholic higher education. Folks in El Salvador talk about the “hope of the martyrs” and refer to Mons. Romero’s famous dictum: “If you kill me I will be resurrected in the Salvadoran people.” We celebrate the legacy of the Jesuit martyrs to keep alive their memory and our hope.

Peace,

Kevin P. Quinn, S.J.