San Romero

A Letter from Joseph Russ, serving in the Northern Triangle of Central America

Spring 2022

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Dear friends,

On March 24, 1980, Monseñor Óscar Romero, the archbishop of El Salvador, was shot and killed while leading mass in the Chapel of Divine Providence in San Salvador. Within days, war broke out between left-wing guerrilla forces and the right-wing regime in power at the time. The conflict lasted 12 years until peace accords were signed in 1992, and the nation still feels the effects of the Salvadoran Civil War.

This year, pilgrims from El Salvador and the world over congregate to commemorate San Romero’s martyrdom, and this year was no exception. Priests and theologians from around the world remembered how Romero spoke out against government-run “death squads” that murdered activists and priests calling for economic reform, land redistribution, and an end to electoral fraud that had characterized the 70s. Most of the soldiers who formed these death squads were equipped and trained by the United States. He denounced the sins of military officials, politicians and wealthy landowners who orchestrated these murders and massacres and inspired a hope for a world transformed by the leadership of the impoverished and marginalized. As theologian Ignacio Ellacuría once said, “With Oscar Romero, God passed through El Salvador.” It was because of his opposition to the establishment that politician Roberto d’Aubuisson ordered Romero’s assassination.

Romero was canonized as a Catholic saint in 2018, but he is also an important figure to many Christians and non-Christians alike. His contributions to Liberation Theology have profoundly impacted Latin American theology and theology in general. Liberation Theology is a branch of Christian theology that emphasizes the prophetic voice of the poor. Just as God became incarnate in Jesus Christ, an unhoused poor man from a small village in a land occupied by a foreign military force, God’s message is most clearly understood from the perspective of the impoverished, marginalized, and oppressed.

So many of El Salvador’s churches continue to live out Oscar Romero’s legacy as they respond to the demands of the Gospel as they appear in reality. Witnessing the plight of the impoverished, the oppressed, and the marginalized, whether victims of discrimination, poverty, or injustice, communities of faith mobilize to call out injustice and advocate for a more just world. On the 42nd anniversary of Romero’s martyrdom, theologian Juan José Tamayo affirmed that not only did God pass through El Salvador with Romero, but “With the Salvadoran people, God continues to pass through El Salvador today.”

And the Calvinist Reformed Church of El Salvador is no exception.

It is because of their work responding to issues ranging from the environment to mental health, from poverty to migration, that I am so honored to be supporting them as a partner in mission.

Earlier this week, I was blessed to be installed as a mission co-worker by the community I have been worshiping with and sharing my faith with over the past five years. Since 2016, I have lived in El Salvador and found a home in the Calvinist Reformed Church of El Salvador (IRCES). It is a spiritually nurturing community with a deep commitment to climate justice, peacebuilding, and addressing migration and forced displacement. Just as Romero responded to the realities of the Salvadoran people in the 70s, IRCES responds to the realities people face today and works toward justice.

This community has taught me so much, and it is such a privilege to be able to continue worshiping and serving with them. Not only because I am passionate about this work (which I am), but because I am honored and humbled to have been invited to this opportunity by friends. I feel so blessed to have come to this opportunity through them. Throughout these five years, they have accompanied me in discerning my own call to service in Central America.

They helped me discern my call to stay beyond my initial contract of a mere year and a half. They helped me discern my call to study Latin American Theology at the Universidad Centroamericana. They helped me discern my call to work with migrants, returnees and forcibly displaced people. And it only makes sense that now, they have helped me discern my call to join them in building a network of organizations working on migration and advocacy in the region and in the United States.

In some ways, it feels to me like I am being sent on mission by the IRCES to the PC(USA), as I will be supporting advocacy efforts around migration in the U.S. based on the realities that people in the region are experiencing. They are my community of faith, and I will be sharing the message of God to which they have testified with people in the U.S. and the world. I want to share their testimony with you.

It is my dream that, as we continue to deconstruct the ways that we do missions, that the communities we serve and accompany will always have the opportunity to advocate for themselves, and I pray I can live into this vision for missions.

In their commitment to justice and liberation, this community embodies the spirit of God and lives into the legacy of Oscar Romero. I am excited and honored to accompany IRCES and bear witness to the ways God passes through El Salvador with them.

Joseph