This CAN’T Be Happening Again.
November 13, 2006
On Saturday, November 4, two Salvadoran pastors were murdered while locking up their church after a Saturday evening service. Francisco Carrillo and Jesus Maria Calzada (husband and wife) were co-pastors at Pan de Vida (Bread of Life) in Jayaque and Montes de Penzberg in the La Labor canton 15 km. away.
I learned this from a Lutheran Volunteer Corps recruiter who is visiting my school. He has been to El Salvador several times and has many friends there. He told me that the murders were most definitely politically motivated and that the government inspectors did not show up to check out the crime scene for nearly 24 hours. The attached article reports that the government forensics department was also very slow in releasing the bodies back to family members. (Click on the title of this blog entry for the link.)
In the country that birthed liberation theology, a country still grappling with the horrors of a civil war, which in the 1980s claimed the lives of Archbishop Oscar Romero and dozens of priests and lay church leaders, this event shakes to life the nightmare of violent oppression.
Sometimes I forget how threatened groups of power are by voices of justice.
Remember Francisco and Jesus Maria today. Remember Oscar Romero and the many martyrs in El Salvador who, inspired by Christ, dared to speak for justice to their tiny corner of the earth. They didn’t just pray, “Thy kingdom come, on earth…” They built it.
Peices of life laid on the table.
Here is the blood, poured out in love.
Fill this cup, raise it up
Here’s to the day, my friend.
Time draws a line down innocent faces.
So you say goodbye, say goodnight.
And here’s to the day, remember.
Can you say it for the ones whose voices are silenced?
Can you say it for the ones who’ve never been free?
Here’s to the day that’s coming.
God speed the day…
Gather in close now, cling to each other.
Sing to the night, you don’t sing alone.
And fill this cup, raise it up.
Here’s to the day, remember.
