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El Salvador, aided by millions of dollars in U.S. military aid, became an epicenter of human rights violations. In March 1980, Archbishop Óscar Romero was shot to death while saying Mass. (Pope Francis canonized him as a saint on Oct, 14, 2018.)
On Dec. 2, 1980, four U.S. Catholic missionaries in El Salvador were raped and murdered by the El Salvador National Guard: Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sr. Dorothy Kazel and lay missionary Jean Donovan. Peter and Betty were close friends of these women, said fellow activist Scott Wright, who worked with the missionaries since the 1970s. They believed that martyrs had a special claim on our lives.