Part 1 of Essay
was born on August 15, 1917 in Ciudad Barrios, a town east of El Salvador. He was the second of seven children. When he was thirteen he declared a vocation to the priesthood. He went to a seminary in San Miguel and from there Rome. He was ordained in 1942. In January 1944 he was recalled to San Miguel by his bishop and ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... by soldiers in the town square of the capital. Then, on 12 March 1977, a radical priest, Rutilio Grande, was murdered. Romero had known him. Now he observed that there was no official inquiry. He recognized that power lay in the hands of violent men, and that they murdered with impunity. The wealthy sanctioned the violence that maintained them. Death squads committed murder in the cities while soldiers killed as they wished in the countryside. When a new government, which represented many powerful interests ....