Ellacuría, Ignacio (1930–1989)

Ignacio Ellacuría, a Jesuit priest, philosopher, and theologian, was assassinated with five other Jesuit priests at the University of Central America (UCA) on November 16, 1989. At that time, he was rector of the university and one of the most outspoken critics of human rights violations and suffering in El Salvador since the assassination of Archbishop Romero in 1980.

Ellacuría was born in Portugalete (Vizcaya), Spain, and at the age of 17 he joined the Jesuits at their [Page 520]novitiate in Loyola. He was sent to the Jesuit Novitiate in El Salvador where he was guided, as five of the Jesuit martyrs were, by the prophetic figure of Miguel Elizondo. He studied philosophy in Quito, and theology at Innsbruck, where Karl Rahner had an enormous influence on his future view of a philosophy of liberation. Ordained as a priest in 1961, Ellacuría studied under the Basque philosopher Xavier Zubiri and completed his doctorate in philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid in 1965. In 1967 he returned to El Salvador and remained at the UCA until his assassination.

Ellacuría served as head of the philosophy department and as a member of the board of directors of UCA for many years. Following his commitment to academic excellence, he managed to bring the editorial office of Estudios Centro Americanos (ECA) to the UCA and founded a center for theological reflection, which engaged theology with the political processes in Central America and, at the same time, served the needs of the poor. Ellacuría received many death threats, and there were 15 bombs planted at the UCA from 1977 to 1989, as well as night raids and destruction of property by the Salvadorian Army. Ellacuría had to leave El Salvador after the assassination of the Jesuit Rutilio Grande in 1977 and after the assassination of Archbishop Romero in 1980.

In 1984, together with Jon Sobrino, he founded the Revista Latinoamericana de Teología, and in 1985 he helped mediate with the guerrillas for the release of President Duarte's daughter. In early November 1989, as rector of UCA, he received a prize in Barcelona from the Comín Foundation. Due to the escalation of violence in El Salvador, he decided to return as soon as possible, in order to help with any possible mediation between the government and guerrillas, paying with his life for his Christian activism.