34 Facts About Rutilio Grande

Rutilio Grande Garcia, SJ was a Jesuit priest in El Salvador.

Rutilio Grande was assassinated in 1977, along with two other Salvadorans.

Rutilio Grande was the first priest assassinated before the Salvadoran Civil War started and a close friend of Archbishop Oscar Romero.

Rutilio Grande was born on 5 July 1928, the youngest of 7 children, to a poor family in El Paisnal, El Salvador.

At the age of 12, Rutilio was noticed by Archbishop Luis Chavez y Gonzalez during his annual visit to their village and was invited to attend the high school seminary in San Salvador, the capital of the country.

At the age of 17, following the final year of high school seminary, Rutilio Grande entered the Jesuit process of the formation called the novitiate.

Rutilio Grande first traveled to Caracas, Venezuela, since there was no Jesuit novitiate in Central America.

Rutilio Grande continued his studies for the priesthood at the major seminary of San Jose de la Montana, where he became friends with Romero, a fellow student.

Rutilio Grande was ordained a priest in mid-1959 in Spain in the city of Ona.

Rutilio Grande returned to Spain in 1962 to complete studies left undone due to his physical and mental struggles.

Rutilio Grande was particularly influenced by his experiences of an inclusive liturgy which insisted upon the widest and deepest lay participation possible at that time.

Rutilio Grande returned to El Salvador in 1965 and was appointed director of social action projects at the seminary in San Salvador, a position he held for nine years.

Rutilio Grande taught a variety of subjects including liturgy, catechesis, pastoral theology, and introduction to the mystery of Christ.

Rutilio Grande fully utilized the social sciences in an effort to understand the reality within which he lived and ministered.

Rutilio Grande eventually had a falling out with the leadership of the seminary over his methods for formation and evangelization.

Rutilio Grande disagreed with the insistence that seminarians separate their intellectual formation from their pastoral formation.

Shortly after this falling out with church leadership, and reconciliation over his criticism of the seminary system, Rutilio Grande would attend the Latin American Pastoral Institute in Quito, Ecuador beginning in 1972.

Deeply engaged in the lives of the people he served, Rutilio Grande led with the Gospel but did not shy away from speaking on social and political issues, which had profound consequences for the church.

Rutilio Grande could be credited with promoting a "pastoral" liberation ministry that began in scripture and allowed lay people in El Salvador to work for social transformation without resorting to Marxist analysis.

Rutilio Grande was prophetic on issues of land reform, the relationship of rich and poor, liturgical inclusiveness, workers' rights, and making the Catholic faith real for very poor people.

Rutilio Grande was fond of saying that "the Gospel must grow little feet" if Christ is not to remain in the clouds.

Rutilio Grande had been master of ceremonies at Romero's installation as bishop of Santiago de Maria in 1975 and remained a friend and confidant of Romero, whom he inspired through his ministry and through the ultimate sacrifice he made.

Rutilio Grande had served in the parish of Aguilares off and on from 1967 to 1977.

Rutilio Grande was responsible, along with many other Jesuits, for establishing Christian base communities and training "Delegates of the Word" to lead them.

Rutilio Grande spoke against the injustices at the hands of an oppressive government and dedicated his life's work to organizing the impoverished, marginalized rural farmers of El Salvador as they demanded respect for their rights.

Rutilio Grande challenged the government in its response to actions he saw as attempts to harass and silence Salvadoran priests.

On 13 February 1977, Rutilio Grande preached a sermon that came to be called "the Apopa sermon," denouncing the government's expulsion of Londono, an action that some later believed helped to provoke Rutilio Grande's murder:.

On 12 March 1977, Rutilio Grande was assassinated by Salvadoran security forces, just outside his hometown, suffering martyrdom for the people he served and loved.

Behind Rutilio Grande's vehicle was a small pickup truck that had trailed them from Aguilares.

The later autopsy indicated that Rutilio Grande was killed by twelve bullets from both the front and rear of the vehicle, the weapons and ammunition used common to the local police.

Rutilio Grande appointed another Jesuit, Jon de Cortina, to succeed Grande as parish priest.

The canonization process for Rutilio Grande, opened in March 2014 by the Archbishop of San Salvador, Jose Luis Escobar, was ceremonially closed on Aug 16,2016.

In 1977, after the murder of Rutilio Grande, they wanted to pay tribute to his work and life, and all the country's artists were summoned to do so.

The life and ministry of Rutilio Grande is depicted in "Monsenor: The Last Journey of Oscar Romero", produced by the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame in 2011.