Rutilio Grande

Upon returning to El Salvador in 1964, Father Rutilio Grande was appointed prefect and professor of pastoral theology at the 'San José de la Montaña' interdiocesan seminary in San Salvador, a position he held until 1970. Inspired by the Second Vatican Council and the Latin American Episcopal Conference of Medellín (1968), he strove to renew the formation of future priests. He insisted that seminarians undertake pastoral internships directly in contact with the concrete realities of poor populations and shantytowns, in order to develop a pastoral approach of incarnation and service.

In 1972, he left the seminary and was appointed parish priest of Aguilares, a rural region near his native village. It was there that he deployed his major pastoral work. With a team of Jesuits and laypeople, he implemented a method of liberating evangelization based on base ecclesial communities (CEBs). He encouraged the peasants (campesinos) to read the Bible in groups, to become aware of their dignity as children of God, and to organize themselves to defend their rights in the face of exploitation by large landowners (the local oligarchy) and military oppression.

Father Grande preached the image of a 'common table' where everyone, especially the poor, has their place and the right to be fed and to express themselves. This pastoral work, although strictly religious and non-partisan, was perceived as a subversive threat by the military authorities and large landowners, who accused him of spreading communist ideas.

Tensions intensified at the beginning of 1977. On February 13, 1977, during a memorable homily delivered in Apopa to protest the expulsion of a foreign priest, Father Grande prophetically declared that if Jesus Christ were to try to cross the border of El Salvador today, he would be arrested and crucified again as a subversive by the wealthy minority. On March 12, 1977, while driving from Aguilares to El Paisnal to celebrate a Mass as part of the novena for the feast of Saint Joseph, his car (a Volkswagen Safari) was ambushed. Armed men, linked to the regime's security forces and death squads, strafed the vehicle at Las Tres Cruces. Father Rutilio Grande was killed instantly, struck by numerous projectiles. Alongside him also died his two lay companions: Manuel Solórzano, a 72-year-old catechist and sacristan, and Nelson Rutilio Lemus, a 16-year-old collaborator. Three children present in the back of the vehicle managed to escape. The assassination of Father Grande caused an immense shock. His close friend, Archbishop Óscar Romero, who had just been installed as Archbishop of San Salvador a few weeks earlier and was then considered rather conservative, was deeply shaken. He spent the night keeping vigil over the bodies in the church of Aguilares. This event marked a decisive turning point in the life of Archbishop Romero, who decided to take up the torch of Father Grande and become the "voice of the voiceless," which would lead him to his own martyrdom three years later, on March 24, 1980.

The cause for the beatification of Father Rutilio Grande and his two lay companions was officially opened in the diocese of San Salvador in 2015. On February 21, 2020, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing their martyrdom in hatred of the faith (in odium fidei), which dispenses with the requirement of a miracle for their beatification. The beatification ceremony took place on January 22, 2022, at the Plaza Divino Salvador del Mundo in San Salvador. It was presided over, in the name of Pope Francis, by Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez, in the presence of thousands of faithful and numerous bishops from Central America. Father Cosme Spessotto, an Italian Franciscan missionary also murdered in El Salvador in 1980, was beatified during the same celebration. The liturgical memorial of Blessed Rutilio Grande and his companions is set for March 12, the day of their birth into heaven.

The spirituality of Blessed Rutilio Grande is deeply rooted in the Incarnation and evangelical justice. For him, the proclamation of the Good News cannot be dissociated from human advancement and the defense of the rights of the poorest. He embodied the figure of the 'shepherd with the smell of his sheep,' living humbly among the peasants and sharing their sufferings.

His legacy is immense, both for the Church of El Salvador and for the Society of Jesus and the universal Church. He is considered the first martyr priest of the period preceding the Salvadoran Civil War. His testimony not only transformed the life and ministry of Saint Óscar Romero, but it continues to inspire movements of pastoral theology and social commitment in favor of justice and reconciliation throughout the world.