The reality about Salvadoran history is that it is impossible to recognize every massacre. There are just too many. If you then add assassinations of one, two, or three people, it is astounding. Oftentimes, these murders-not-massacres were of faith leaders, lay or clergy, who were responsible for bringing the Good News of liberation, a God who is LOVE, and Jesus as brother and worker to their brothers and sisters.
One such leader was Padre Rutilio Grande. Padre Tilo was a Jesuit priest who studied just about everywhere in the world (or at least throughout the Americas and Europe). In the early 1970s he came to Aguilares, a town just west of Suchitoto, to serve as the priest. His solidarity with poor people and his rejection of government oppression made him a persona non grata for the Salvadoran government. On March 12, 1977, he was assassinated along with Manuel Solorzano (72 years old) and Nelson Rutilio Lemus (16 years old).
His life and his death were both hugely influential in the conversion of the newly-appointed Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, from a safe, conservative choice for the institutional church to a clear, consistent voice for nonviolence and human dignity. Grande and Romero were friends and colleagues in life and Grande's murder became a turning point for Romero.
Guillermo Cuellar, a musician who worked alongside Romero as a youth leader, used words from one of Grande's homilies for the entrance hymn of the Misa Salvadoreña:
Vamos todos al banquete, a la mesa de la creación
Cada cual con su taburete tiene un puesto y una misión
Wonderfully translated by Bill Dexheimer Pharris and Bret Hesla (don't we have gems in the Twin Cities!) the refrain says:
Let us go now to the banquet, to the feast of the universe
The table's set and the place is waiting,
Come everyone with your gifts to share
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