Faith of a People

This book is the story of a Christian community of El Salvador. Like so many other Salvadoran communities, this one is small and is a community of the poor. It is located on the outskirts of the capital city, between the fields and the slums, where there is no water system or electricity or school. The people here are poor and miserable, numberless and glory less. But there is one incredible thing about this poor community. It has a history and it has made history in El Salvador and in its church. Ten years of the that history will be recounted here - the ten decisive years from 1970 to 1980, with their crises, horror, and incalculable pain for the Salvadoran people. Yet these were years of measureless creativity, dedication, and heroism, too. In these ten years the people and the church of El Salvador emerged from anonymity and uttered a mighty word for the whole world to hear. This book was written by a priest who lived in that community. He is a European, a 'missionary, ' as he calls himself in the story, with a 'mission' like so many other foreign priests. He writes of what he has seen and heard, of what his hands have touched, and of the roads and sidewalks his feet have walked... This book is a song to the deed of a people and a church. A little people and a little church, but great in suffering, in fortitude, in hope, in commitment, and in faith. Their most visible manifestations are these communities. Their most shining symbol is Archbishop Romero. What dwells at the heart of these manifestations and these symbols is the faith of a people. John Sobrino, S.J., From the Foreword Only this kind of chronicle of the radicalization of faith in a life and death struggle may help explain how the conversion of the Salvadoran poor makes tyrants and their friends desperately cruel an ultimately vanquishable. Wish to God the point could be made without the crucifixion of so many. Jorge Lara-Braud, Professor of Theology and Culture, San Francisco Theological Seminary