LOS ANGELES (RNS) Forty-five years after a right-wing death squad gunned down the Rev. Rutilio Grande along with two Catholic laymen, Manuel Solórzano and Nelson Lemus, in El Salvador,
LOS ANGELES (RNS) Forty-five years after a right-wing death squad gunned down the Rev. Rutilio Grande along with two Catholic laymen, Manuel Solórzano and Nelson Lemus, in El Salvador, Jesús Aguilar still vividly remembers the sadness and dread of that day.
(RNS) As the four martyrs are one step closer to sainthood, Salvadorans in the United States hope the designation could inspire the Catholic Church to center the poor and marginalized.
Four martyrs are beatified at a Mass in San Salvador, El Salvador, on Jan. 22, 2022. / Camilo Freedman/APHOTOGRAFIA/Getty Images.Vatican City, Jan 25, 2022 / 13:00 pm (CNA).Pope Francis has commended the "heroic example" of four martyrs killed in the 1970s and 1980s who were recently beatified in El Salvador.Franciscan Father Cosme Spessotto, Jesuit Father Rutilio Grande, and two lay companions were declared blessed at a beatification Mass in San Salvador on Jan. 22."They stood by the poor, bearing witness to the Gospel, truth, and justice even to the point of shedding their blood," Pope Francis said in his Angelus address the following day."May their heroic example inspire in everyone the desire to be courageous workers of fraternity and peace."Blessed Cosme Spessotto was shot by a machine gun while kneeling in a pew near the tabernacle on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on June 14, 1980.The Franciscan priest, who had come to El Salvador as a mi