The Church in the Salvadoran Revolution

Bibliographic Data

ID4897487
AuthorsTommie Sue Montgomery (0009-0004-3347-5368, corresponding author)
Year1983
Volume10
Issue1
Pages62-87
Publication date1983-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-582X • E-ISSN: 1552-678X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0094582x8301000105
OpenAlexW2039069232
LanguageEN
Citations received8

In December 1968 Father Jose Inocencio Alas, a young diocesan priest, was sent by his bishop, Monsefior Luis Chavez y Gonzalez, the parish of Suchitoto thirty miles north of San Salvador. Alas had just spent several months in Ecuador studying how develop a pastoral program that would directly involve his parishioners in the daily life of the church. The technique that Alas focused on was the creation of Comunidades Eclesiales de Base (Christian Base Communities-CEBs). CEBs are small, closely knit groups within parishes that meet regularly for Bible study and often develop other goals according the interests of the group. When Alas arrived in Suchitoto, he lost no time putting his newly acquired knowledge into practice. Within a few months thirty-two CEBs were functioning. In February 1969 Alas began a two-month course in which the CEBs discussed biblical themes and the form each CEB should take. The objective of the course, according Alas, was to prepare the people, following Medellin (the Latin American Catholic Bishops Conference, held in Medellin, Colombia in 1968), succeed in constructing their own destiny. At the end of the course the CEBs elected nineteen campesinos (peasants) as Delegates of the Word (lay preachers). These people then received additional training, including a course in public speaking. While these courses were continuing, the ubiquitous problem of land tenancy was coming a head in Suchitoto. Roberto Hill and Miguel Salaverria, two members of El Salvador's small, landed oligarchy, had created Parcialaciones Rurales de Desarrollo (Rural Subdivisions for Development), a private company, in 1969 ostensibly provide financing for individuals purchase plots of land. In reality, it provided loans already wealthy landowners purchase large farms at low prices, then subdivide them and sell the small parcels at exorbitant prices

Bishops · Destiny (ISS module) · Latin Americans · Manifest destiny · Oligarchy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · History · Law · Religious and Theological Studies

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