U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern Reflects on the Twentieth Anniversary of the Jesuit Murders in El Salvador

WORCESTER, Mass. – U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, will reflect on the 20th anniversary of the assassination of six Jesuits, their housekeeper, and her daughter in El Salvador, in a lecture titled “My experience as a staff person for Congressman Joseph Moakley and the investigation of the Jesuit murders,” on Monday, March 29 at 4:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross.  The event is free and open to the public.

More than 70,000 died during El Salvador’s civil war in the 1980s and early 1990s, the vast majority of whom were civilians killed by the Salvadoran government’s armed forces and paramilitary death squads.

On Nov. 16, 1989, the assassination of the six Jesuits, and the two women, who were unwavering in their defense of the poor and oppressed, brought international outrage and condemnation upon the Salvadoran government, ultimately pressuring its leaders to end their country’s civil war.

Congressman Joseph Moakley worked for six years to ease immigration restrictions on Salvadorans.  In 1989, he was selected to lead the congressional investigation into the murders of the six Jesuit priests and two laywomen at the University of Central America in San Salvador.  Moakley’s work resulted in the U.N. peace accord in 1992.  McGovern’s talk is the culmination of a series of lectures and events hosted by the College to remember the 20th anniversary of the Jesuit murders in El Salvador.