Catholic Church puts 4 Salvadoran martyrs on path to sainthood 

The Roman Catholic Church beatified two priests and two lay people this past weekend weekend, all victims of far-right death squads during El Salvador’s bloody civil war between 1979 and 1992.  

Beatification means the Church has attributed at least one miracle to a deceased person and a second can lead to the recognition of that person's sainthood.

Jesuit Priest Rutilio Grande was known for his affinity and ministry to the poor and was said to be an inspiration to St. Oscar Romero, the former-archbishop of El Salvador who was murdered by a gunman while saying mass at the Church of the Divine Providence in San Salvador on March 24, 1980.

Days earlier, the archbishop delivered a sermon asking the military to stop the repression.

Franciscan Priest Cosme Spessotto, an Italian friar who arrived in El Salvador in 1950, was killed while praying at the altar of his parish by Salvadoran soldiers on June 14, 1980. He was known for his commitment to some of El Salvador’s poorest communities and for his notorious unwillingness to leave his flock in the face of death threats once the civil war broke out.

Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez, the Holy See’s envoy, called the four models and an example for all to follow as crowds gathered around yellow and white Vatican banners and images of the four martyrs.

“Rutilio, Manuel, Nelson and Cosme: those are the names of the innocent victims sacrificed on the altars of power, pleasure and money," Rosa Chávez said. “The blood shed by our martyrs, associated with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, is the seed of reconciliation and peace.”

Pope Francis, who is also a Jesuit, has long spoken of his admiration the martyrs and for Romero, who he declared a saint in 2018. Francis is the first Latin American pontiff.

“I was a devotee of Rutilio even before coming to know Romero better,” Francis told Central American priests during his visit to Panama in 2019. “When I was in Argentina, his life influenced me, his death touched me.”

“He said what he had to say, but it was his testimony, his martyrdom, that eventually moved Romero,” Francis added. “This was the grace.”

The war, which ended with the signing of peace accords in 1992, left more than 75,000 dead and some 12,000 missing.

Current San Salvador Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas spoke of Spessotto’s humanitarianism with reporters shortly after the beautification event.

“When the war started he had the courage to follow the path of the armed forces visiting the homes where they left dead, pray (over the bodies) and help the families with funeral expenses,” he said. “In defense of the lives of the innocent he confronted the killers, who also killed him.”

During the 12-year civil war in El Salvador, over 20 priests,  four nuns and hundreds of catechists were killed.