La Cruz Subversia

The Subversive Cross

There was a white wood cross in the sanctuary of Iglesia Luterana de Resurreccion. It is framed, behind glass on the left of the sanctuary. When Pastor Gomez invited us into his office, he was asked about the meaning behind the cross. What he told us, none of us expected.

Twenty years ago, which would have been near the end of the civil war, the military in El Salvador were out to kill the Jesuit priests and other religious leaders. They came looking for Pastor Gomez (then the Bishop), but found his church was functioning as a shelter for political refugees, and he was nowhere to be found. He was already in hiding in the German Embassy in El Salvador. The military took the foreigners and the white wooden cross to jail. Bishop Gomez had stated that during a previous service the parishioners had written words on the cross that that were the sins the military and government were committing against the people of El Salvador, along with the parishioners confessing their own sins. This was the reason the military took the cross, because of its “subversive material”. Shortly after the capture of the cross, he assisted in the funerals of Jesuit priests, and then he left the country for three months. He came back with a team of nine bishops for security. When he arrived back in El Salvador, the U.S. Ambassador, William Walker, was waiting for him. The Ambassador welcomed him back and asked if there was anything he could do for the Bishop. Bishop Gomez asked if he could help him locate and rescue the cross, which was still in jail. Ambassador Walker made a promise, spoke with the president of El Salvador, and the cross was returned to Bishop Gomez in the Casa Blanca.

The cross now sits in the sanctuary of the church, as a reminder of the value of the cross.