Commemoration of the Martyrs of Central America

Each year, a line of white crosses along the quad stands in memory of the martyrs of Central America. In this way, Loyola College honors those who have been killed because they stood up for the rights of the voiceless and because they made an option for the poor. 

Throughout Central and South America, the disenfranchised have struggled for decades against injustice, violence and oppression to create a community and a world where they can live out their human dignity and provide for their families.  Hundreds have put their lives in danger by struggling with and for these people. 

We remember especially the 6 Jesuits from the University of Central America and the 4 churchwomen in El Salvador who were killed because they were people of faith committed to peace and justice and because they advocated for the rights of the Salvadoran people. 

We invite you to walk the way of the cross on the quad in silence; remembering the individuals whose lives have been given in sacrifice for the freedom and liberation of the people of Central America.

The Significance of the White Crosses:
Commemoration of the Martyrs of Central America

"Those who make an option for the poor must be prepared to share the same fate as the poor."
- Archbishop Oscar Romero

Throughout Central and South America, the disenfranchised have struggled for decades against injustice, violence and oppression to create a community and a world where they can live out their human dignity and provide for their families. Hundreds have put their lives in danger by struggling with and for these people.

A line of white crosses along the quad stand in memory of the martyrs of Central America. Loyola College honors those who have been killed because they stood up for the rights of the voiceless and because they made an option for the poor. We remember especially the six Jesuits from the University of Central America and the four churchwomen in El Salvador who were killed because they were people of faith committed to peace and justice and because they advocated for the rights of the Salvadoran people. We invite you to walk the way of the cross on the quad in silence; remembering the individuals whose lives have been given in sacrifice for the freedom and liberation of the people of Central America.

MARTYRS OF CENTRAL AMERICA

On December 2, 1980, four churchwomen were stopped by the National Guard of El Salvador.  They were murdered, mutilated, and buried in shallow graves because their work with the poor and destitute threatened the power structure in control at that time.

Sr. Maura Clarke, Sr. Ita Ford, and Sr. Dorothy Kazel, and mission worker Jean Donovan

On November 16, 1989, six members of the Jesuit faculty of the University of Central America, their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered by violent military forces in El Salvador.  They were scholars committed to truth, and men of faith committed to peace and justice for the poor. 

Ignacio Ellacuría, SJ, Ignacio Martín-Baró, SJ, Segundo Montes, SJ, Armando López, SJ,
Juan Ramón Moreno, SJ, Joaquin López y López, SJ , Elba Ramos, Celina Ramos

OTHER WITNESSES WHO PAID WITH THEIR LIVES

Dorothy Stang, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, worked for 22 years with poor farmers in a struggle with loggers over destruction of their native land.  She was shot to death on February 12, 2005 in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest.

Santiago Tuberquia Graciano was an 18-month old casualty of the land struggles between villagers and army-paramilitary in Colombia.  He was one of the eight members of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community in Urabá, Colombia—including two other young children—who were brutally murdered on February 21-22, 2005.

Bishop Juan Gerardi was the Guatemalan Bishop who began the REMHI program, an inter-diocesan program that documented the torture, abuse, abductions and massacres that occurred throughout the 36 years of war.  He was assassinated on April 28, 1998.

Barbara Ford, a Sister of Charity, was gunned down in Guatemala City on May 5, 2001.  She was well-known for her work with the Mayan Indians and had collected data that led to the discovery of mass graves of civilian victims of the civil war.

Stan Rother, a missionary priest from the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, was murdered in his rectory in the parish of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala on July 28, l981.  He had spent the last thirteen years of his life working with the T’zutuhil-Mayan communities of the parish.

Bill Woods was a Maryknoll priest whose plane was shot down in the Ixcán area of Guatemala on November 20, 1976 during his work building communities, agricultural cooperatives and sustainable futures with the landless people of the region.