Quoting James Martin, S.J., as we remember these brave men and women who were murdered 30 years ago this weekend, because they stood for social justice, social change for the people.

“These men and women paid the ultimate price for standing with the poor and marginalized in the name of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:30). AMDG

— Read on :

On November 16, 1989, Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J., Ignacio Martín-Baró, S.J., Segundo Montes, S.J., Juan Ramón Moreno, S.J., Joaquín López y López, S.J., Amando López, S.J. and Elba Ramos, a housekeeper for one of the local Jesuit community’s, and her 15 year-old daughter Celina Ramos, were murdered at the University of Central America in San Salvador, El Salvador.

The lives and loss of these martyrs have significantly influenced the Ignatian family in the United States and throughout the world. Jesuit institutions have re-defined what it is to be universities, high schools, parishes, etc. in light of the martyrs, discerning new ways of addressing issues of social justice locally and abroad. Across the Ignatian family new ways of proceeding have developed over the course of twenty-five years. ISN is a direct product of the spirit of the martyrs, forming in response to their tragic deaths at the hands of many individuals who received training at the former U.S. Army School of the Americas.