Priest Under Fire
Padre David Rodríguez, the Catholic Church, and El Salvador's Revolutionary Movement
- 329 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
Priest Under Fire
Padre David Rodríguez, the Catholic Church, and El Salvador's Revolutionary Movement
About this book
David Rodriguez, or Padre David as he is known throughout El Salvador, is a diocesan priest who followed the Second Vatican Council's doctrinal mandate to advocate for the poor and oppressed. Along with other progressive clergy committed to liberation theology, Padre David helped drive forward the country's popular movement.
In the 1970s, Padre David joined the largest guerilla organization in El Salvador, the FPL (Popular Liberation Forces). At first, he supported the FPL clandestinely, helping to organize Christian Base Communities, autonomous religious groups dedicated to spreading liberationist ideas and to giving the Salvadoran poor a clear understanding of why their lives were so difficult. By the end of the twelve-year civil war, he was head of the FPL's finance committee. He traveled to the United States, Europe, and across Latin America raising funds for the movement and its resulting political party, the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front).
In Priest Under Fire, Peter Sánchez tells the story of how one priest joined a movement to help his people and his country. He provides much-needed insight into both the Salvadoran civil war and the Catholic Church-influenced grassroots political movements, showing that they continue to inform Latin America today.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Priest Under Fire
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- 1. A Man and Questions for All Seasons: Leaders and Ideas in Contentious Politics
- 2. The Training of a Traditional Priest: “I would like to be a pastor of souls”
- 3. The Awakening of a Priest: “You have ruined the parish!”
- 4. The Radicalization of a Priest: “You are now ‘Joaquín’”
- 5. A Revolutionary Priest: “The ‘Che’ of the Bible”
- 6. A Democratic Priest: “Padre David has the word”
- 7. One Priest’s Quest for the Promised Land: “‘El Chele’ David has always been a leader”
- Appendix: The Personal Interviews
- Notes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index