[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 150 (Wednesday, December 10, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1779-E1780]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE JESUIT MARTYRS OF EL SALVADOR

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 10, 2014

  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, in mid-November I was privileged to 
participate in the 25th Anniversary observance of the Jesuit martyrs of 
El Salvador. On November 16, 1989, the Salvadoran military carried out 
a joint operation with the specific purpose to enter the campus of the 
Jesuit-administered University of Central America Jose Simeon Canas 
(the UCA) and murder the university rector and several of its faculty. 
That evening, members of the Salvadoran Army shot and killed six Jesuit 
priests, including the rector, along with two women, a housekeeper and 
her teenage daughter, who were being sheltered at the university that 
evening.
  This year I traveled to El Salvador as part of a delegation led by 
the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), which included many 
presidents and officials of U.S. Jesuit colleges and universities. It 
was a very moving experience, one that strengthened both my faith and 
my commitment to stand up for human rights everywhere, including in my 
own country.
  I was invited to participate in one of the forums organized by the 
UCA as part of the 25th Anniversary events, The Legacy of the Jesuits 
on U.S. Foreign Policy toward El Salvador and Central America and on 
the Society of Jesus. Also appearing on the panel were Fr. Charlie 
Currie, SJ, with Georgetown University and executive president of 
Jesuit Commons; Fr. Michael Sheeran, SJ, president, Association of 
Jesuit Colleges and Universities/AJCU (in the USA); Fr. Andreu Oliva, 
SJ, rector, UCA; Geoff Thale, WOLA; and Fr. Tom Smolich, SJ, former 
president of US Conference of Jesuit Provincials.
  I would like to submit the remarks I presented at the UCA on how the 
murders of the six Jesuits and two women affected me and how I see 
their legacy in El Salvador and the United States.

The Legacy of the Jesuits on U.S. Foreign Policy Toward El Salvador and 
              Central America and on the Society of Jesus

     Forum at the UCA: 25th Anniversary Observance of the Jesuit 
         Martyrs
     University of Central America Jose Simeon Canas
     Saturday, November 15, 2014
     10:00 AM-12:00 PM

   Background: Panel presentations by Rep. Jim McGovern, Fr. Charles 
Currie, Geoff Thale, Fr. Tom Smolich, and UCA Rector Fr. Andreu Oliva. 
Presentations will be in Spanish/English with simultaneous translation 
                               provided.


            REMARKS BY U.S. REPRESENTATIVE JAMES P. McGOVERN

       Thank you for that very kind introduction. I am here this 
     morning because I am grateful to the Jesuits of El Salvador, 
     and especially those who have served and those who continue 
     to serve here at the UCA. You have been my friends, my 
     mentors and my teachers. How I think, what I believe, how I 
     view and evaluate what is going on in the world has been 
     shaped by my relations with the Jesuits, before, during and 
     after the war.
       The UCA itself was founded in the spirit of liberation. It 
     is named after a Salvadoran priest, Jose Simeon Canas, who as 
     a congressman in the Constitutional Assembly championed and 
     achieved the abolition of slavery in Central America in 1824. 
     Abraham Lincoln didn't sign the Emancipation Proclamation 
     until forty years later, in 1863. So it's right that we in 
     the United States look to and work with the UCA to advance 
     human rights, human dignity, freedom and equality.
       Many people look upon the deaths of Fathers Ignacio 
     Ellacuria, ``Nacho'' Martin-Baro, Segundo Montes, Juan Ramon 
     Moreno, Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, Amando Lopez, and Elba and 
     Celina Ramos as crimes that epitomize the harsh reality of 
     the war and the brutality of the Salvadoran armed forces. I 
     prefer to remember their lives. I remember how they lived, 
     how they carried out their pastoral work, their intellectual 
     work and research, and how they interacted with their 
     students, friends, colleagues and the Salvadoran people. And 
     if there is one lesson that they taught me, it was that faith 
     is more than ritual--it means action. ``Feed the Hungry'' 
     means feed the hungry. ``Treat Everyone with Dignity'' means 
     every person, and especially the poor, rightfully deserve a 
     life with dignity.
       One of the reasons U.S. policy changed towards El Salvador 
     in the 1990s was because Jesuit university and college 
     presidents from all around the United States--many who are 
     here today--took up the challenge of the murdered Jesuits and 
     ignited their alumni across the country to take action, not 
     to remain silent. Those actions had tremendous power--the 
     power of faith working to move history in support of human 
     rights, truth, justice and peace.
       We come to El Salvador this weekend to commemorate the 
     lives and the loss of our Jesuit brothers. But we are also 
     here to reflect on what has happened over the past 25 years. 
     I believe that U.S. policy toward El Salvador has fallen far 
     short in the aftermath of the war. In 1995, we all but 
     abandoned El Salvador, significantly reducing our economic 
     and development support just when it was most needed to 
     consolidate the peace. When we have seen increases in our 
     development aid, it has mainly been in response to natural 
     disasters.
       The U.S. should have helped lead a Marshall Plan for Peace 
     in El Salvador over the past 20 years; instead, we did the 
     opposite. We still don't have robust assistance ready to 
     support a national development strategy for El Salvador--and 
     we certainly aren't prioritizing projects focused on 
     listening to, working with and helping lift up the poorest 
     and most neglected Salvadorans, rather than economic projects 
     that support elite interests. Even our Millennium Challenge 
     Grants, which are targeted at strengthening Salvadoran 
     agriculture and related infrastructure, and now at supporting 
     development projects along the Pacific Coast, were held 
     hostage to private sector interests for too long. But I'm 
     glad that all conditions have now been resolved and I'm 
     hopeful that development projects that take into account the 
     interests of the communities on the coast might now move 
     forward.
       So, we Americans should not be surprised that we are now 
     reaping what we have helped sow. It doesn't take a rocket 
     scientist to understand that had we invested significantly 
     over the past 20 years in jobs, education, health care, food 
     security, youth, women and families, fewer Salvadorans would 
     have felt forced to abandon their homes and seek a life 
     elsewhere. Not only did U.S. policies export gang violence to 
     Central America, we did precious little to invest in 
     preventing violence from taking root.
       With all these families and unaccompanied children arriving 
     at the U.S. border--many with terrible stories to tell--it is 
     time to develop a policy that is good for the people of El 
     Salvador, Central America and the United States. Will we help 
     our friends and neighbors create jobs and greater 
     opportunities for young people and marginalized communities 
     and towns? Will we help strengthen judicial institutions to 
     investigate and prosecute those responsible for violence? 
     Will we help those same institutions root out corruption and 
     identify those among society who are in league with or 
     benefit from criminal activity and violence? Will we invest 
     in the kind of citizen security and infrastructure that 
     benefits all Salvadorans, not just the wealthy few?
       President Sanchez Ceren is in Washington right now, and he 
     and the other Central American presidents met with U.S. Vice-
     President Joe Biden yesterday. I hope that the Obama 
     Administration and the U.S. Congress will decide to make 
     long-term investments in youth, in development, and in 
     citizen security. I hope they will embrace the positive 
     lessons learned from USAID's recent programs on youth 
     violence prevention. As they work on these proposals, I hope 
     the U.S. and Salvadoran governments will make sure that 
     programs are designed in partnership with civil society and 
     affected communities--a real partnership.
       We in the U.S. government need to be committed to reforming 
     and strengthening institutions, and we have to make sure that 
     our partners in Central America, most especially the regional 
     governments, are also genuinely committed to using these 
     investments for real institutional reform, and for 
     development that benefits youth and marginal communities. We 
     need to make sure that civil society and affected communities 
     are wholly integrated into designing and evaluating these 
     projects. And when I look around the region, I feel like the 
     most potential for creating these types of sensitive and 
     genuine partnerships is here in El Salvador.
       Such long-term investments not only need to be made, they 
     will need to be sustained. I am very concerned that the 
     Administration, and especially the new U.S. Congress, will 
     try to do everything ``on the cheap.'' And meanwhile, the 
     questions remain whether we in the United States will respect 
     our own laws, as well as international humanitarian law, and 
     welcome those who come to our borders in need of protection? 
     Or will we continue to spend money primarily on increasing 
     border security, expanding detention facilities, denying 
     immigrants legal counsel,

[[Page E1780]]

     streamlining deportation proceedings, and overwhelming, 
     rather than strengthening, our immigration courts?
       My country owes a great deal to the hundreds of thousands 
     of Salvadorans who have made the United States their home. 
     They are great assets to our local communities, working hard, 
     opening small businesses, investing in their neighborhoods, 
     and all the while continuing to invest in their families and 
     former communities here in El Salvador. It reminds me a lot 
     of my own Irish-Polish immigrant heritage.
       I learned a great deal about El Salvador from refugees in 
     1983 who told my former boss, Congressman Joe Moakley, their 
     stories. I believe that Salvadoran children and families 
     telling similar stories about why they are trying to escape 
     gang violence and criminal networks can make a difference 
     today. Policymakers need to understand this reality. It also 
     requires a commitment to invest in new policies, new ideas, 
     new approaches--both here in El Salvador and in the United 
     States.
       When we deal with criminal and gang violence in the United 
     States, we know we need to deal with education, social 
     services and prevention programs, and with jobs and 
     opportunities for young people. I don't know why anyone 
     believes it's any different here.
       The Government of El Salvador has made great progress. When 
     I first traveled to El Salvador, the FMLN was in the 
     mountains, settling differences through the barrel of a gun. 
     Today, the Salvadoran people have just elected its second 
     president from the FMLN political party. Peace has made a 
     tremendous difference. The Salvadoran people's commitment to 
     peace has made a tremendous difference. And today, political 
     disputes are settled in the political and public arena.
       I am grateful to be able to honor the lives of the Jesuit 
     martyrs, and to know that their memory and their example 
     continue to influence so many people, even now, 25 years 
     after their murders.
       I am also proud that we will be presenting later today a 
     gift from the Moakley Foundation in Massachusetts for the 
     UCA. I still believe that one of the best investments we can 
     make in El Salvador is to support this university. Future 
     leaders of El Salvador are being educated here today--maybe 
     one of you sitting in the audience will be president of El 
     Salvador one day, or a financial leader, or a teacher whose 
     students will change the world, or a social worker who will 
     work with communities and design the model that lifts 
     thousands of Salvadorans out of poverty and into a dignified 
     life. It is all possible, here at the UCA.
       Education is the great liberator. The history of the UCA--
     and the lives and work of the Jesuit community--have long 
     stood for an engaged and educated society, able to transform 
     itself for the good of all people. This is why universities 
     throughout Central America and around the world have created 
     partnerships with the UCA. The UCA is the place where new 
     ideas, new visions, and new leadership come to be nurtured 
     and to flourish. And the UCA has always been where the voices 
     of the poor were amplified--not just during the war, but in 
     the hard work of advancing and consolidating the peace.
       We all know there is no quick fix to the problems facing El 
     Salvador. But many of the solutions to those problems are 
     ones that the Jesuits and the UCA have advocated for as long 
     as I can remember. All people deserve to be treated with 
     dignity. Investing in the poor means listening to those who 
     live in marginal communities and letting them decide how best 
     to address the many problems that affect their daily lives. 
     Certainly, confronting violent gangs and criminal networks 
     requires strong police and judicial systems. But it also 
     requires that those institutions be free of corruption, 
     transparent, respectful of basic human rights, able to carry 
     out their duties at a decent living wage, and in harmony with 
     the communities that rely on their protection.
       The good news is that there are solutions, and we basically 
     know what they are. I believe with the commitment to act and 
     press policymakers to do the right thing for the majority of 
     Salvadorans, especially the poor, we can all make a 
     difference. And I rely on the UCA and the Jesuits in El 
     Salvador and the United States to remain committed and 
     engaged, and to help show us the way.
       In 1982, in a speech at Santa Clara University, Father 
     Ellacuria spoke eloquently about the role of the university. 
     He began by saying:
       ``Our historical reality--the reality of El Salvador, the 
     reality of the Third World, that is, the reality of the 
     larger part of the world and the most universal--is 
     characterized fundamentally by the dominance of falsehood 
     over truth, of injustice over justice, of oppression over 
     liberty, of scarcity over abundance, in short of evil over 
     good. . .''
       He then went on to describe the role of the university this 
     way:
       ``We ask ourselves what to do with the University. And we 
     answer, above all, from the ethical point of view: transform 
     it, do what is possible so that good wins over evil, liberty 
     over oppression, justice over injustice, truth over falsehood 
     and love over hate. . .
       ``A Christian university must take into account the gospel 
     preference for the poor. This does not mean that only the 
     poor study at the university; it does not mean that the 
     university should abdicate its mission of academic 
     excellence--excellence needed to solve complex social 
     problems. It does mean that the university should be present 
     intellectually where it is needed: to provide science for 
     those who have no science; to provide skills for the 
     unskilled; to be a voice for those who have no voice; to give 
     intellectual support for those who do not possess the 
     academic qualifications to promote and legitimize their truth 
     and their rights.
       I do not mean to be presumptuous by quoting Fr. Ellacuria 
     to all of you who work and study at the UCA, but for me, 
     those words resonate as strongly today as they did three 
     decades ago. How can we look at the agony and desperation of 
     so many Salvadorans and Central Americans and not feel called 
     upon to respond generously and in solidarity with them, their 
     families and their communities? I strongly believe--and it is 
     one of the most important legacies of the Jesuit martyrs--
     that we are here to help the least among us. For me, this is 
     the most important mission--for governments, for churches, 
     for universities, for all of us. As Professor Emeritus Dave 
     O'Brien, at the College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit college 
     in my home town of Worcester, wrote earlier this week, the 
     challenge for all of us is in ``creating the next chapter.''
       When I think of the lives and the deaths of those who we 
     honor and who bring us together for this reflection, I 
     believe that if they were still here with us, experiencing El 
     Salvador's current reality, they would be calling us to the 
     same commitment, built on the same ideals.
       These eight individuals--six priests, two women--they died 
     for a reason. What they stood for is very powerful. As long 
     as I live I will be inspired by their words and by their 
     example.
       It is a powerful legacy. Let us build upon it together. Let 
     us create the next chapter. Thank you.

                          ____________________