Who Was Ignacio Ellacuria?
Submitted by Ron Leonhardt
Our partner community in El Salvador, Ellacuria, is named after Spanish-born, Jesuit Father Ignacio Ellacuria. He was an academic, philosopher, theologian and human rights activist and a major contributor to the development of liberation theology in Latin America. After ordination in 1961, he studied at various institutions and completed his Ph. D. in Philosophy in Madrid in 1967. Thereafter, he joined the philosophy faculty at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in San Salvador where he founded a center for theological reflection stressing service to the needs of the poor and eventually became the rector of the university. Because of his political activism, he received death threats and the UCA was subjected to raids and destruction of property by the Salvadoran army. He returned to Spain for several years but returned in 1989 to help mediate between the government and the guerrillas, which made him an enemy of the far right. He and five other Jesuits, along with their housekeeper and her daughter, were murdered shortly thereafter by an elite army unit. This event led to Good Shepherd beginning to study issues about Central America and eventually beginning the twinning relationship with the Communidad Ignacio Ellacuria in 1990.