GUATEMALA CITY (CNS) -- In his first public announcement since winning El Salvador's presidency, Mauricio Funes evoked the words of slain Archbishop Oscar A. Romero.
"Just as the martyr-bishop said the church of El Salvador could only have a preferential option for the poor, my presidency will have a preference for the vulnerable and the excluded," Funes said in late March.
It was the second time he mentioned the country's former archbishop in the days after winning the election. Catholic voters did not miss the symbolism. For them, Archbishop Romero's name evokes an era when the church was an outspoken critic of the establishment.
Two decades ago, with the region plagued by civil war, church officials such as Archbishop Romero won international praise for questioning the tactics and policies of governments, at times putting themselves at risk. Archbishop Romero, who spoke out during El Salvador's brutal civil war, became one of the war's 75,000 victims when he was killed in 1980.
But he was not an anomaly. His successor, Archbishop Arturo Rivera Damas, Nicaragua's Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo, and Guatemala City's former Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera etched their names into the region's lore as candid religious leaders, observers said.
With Funes' political party -- born out of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front guerrillas -- scheduled to take power in June and the Sandinistas again in control in Nicaragua, Central America's politics recall the 1980s. But few see Catholic Church leaders returning to the role they played in that decade.
"I think what we're seeing now, across the region, is a church in which, contrary to the 1980s, bishops are taking the middle road, saying 'We want change, but we don't want to go back to a time when people were getting killed,'" said Edward Brett, a professor of history at Catholic-run Laroche College in Pittsburgh.
Brett, who wrote a book about the church's role in the 1980s political situation in Central America, recently returned from a fact-finding mission to the region.
"What I found was that many of the bishops still want and are pushing for change, reforms and better lives for the poor, but doing it more carefully than they had. They're saying 'We have to do this slowly and work within the system,'" he said.
Today, the region's most prominent church leader is Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. A globe-trotting, Honduran-born leader who speaks seven languages and was once believed to be on track for the papacy, Cardinal Rodriguez has spoken against poverty, the burden of foreign debt on developing countries, and the U.S. war in Iraq.
Cardinal Rodriguez is the best example of what U.S. Jesuit Father Dean Brackley, a professor of theology at the University of Central America in El Salvador, calls "solid leadership."
His message "might not go as far as bishops once did, but the circumstances are now different," Father Brackley said. "The prophetic church and the church of (the) poor and liberation theology has always been a minority.. .. Most people have been in the middle, and that's more evident now."
Guatemala and Nicaragua serve as examples of how the church has adapted.
In Guatemala, Bishop Gerardi criticized government actions during that country's 36-year civil war, which ended in 1996. In 1998, after years of speaking out against human rights abuses, Bishop Gerardi delivered a truth commission report on the war. He was murdered two days later.
Today, the country is facing a different kind of struggle. More than half the population lives in poverty, and the United Nations says it has one of the world's five-highest homicide rates for countries not at war, with an average of 17 murders per day.
Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruno of Guatemala has taken up the issue by working closely with the president and federal prosecutor. The cardinal helped craft a security plan that will be announced later in April.
In Nicaragua, the Sandinistas, headed by Daniel Ortega, overthrew the dictatorship in 1979. Ortega became president in 1985. During those years, the church went from being supportive to being critical of his Sandinista movement.
Cardinal Obando Bravo, who retired in 2005, initially supported the Sandinistas, then became critical of their tactics. He once called Sandinistas proponents of "godless communism."
Ortega again became president in 2007 and has set up similarly controversial programs. However, he has not drawn the same type of criticism from the current archbishop as he did in the 1980s.
Managua Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes Solorzano took a decidedly neutral stance during the last presidential elections and called on clergy not to participate in the political process.
"By not siding one way or the other, he was able to show that he's a stabilizing force," Father Brackley said. "In that sense, his influence is commendable. He's been able to negotiate extremely difficult times."
No place better exemplifies current church-state relations in Central America than El Salvador, where a president-elect and newly appointed archbishop are adjusting to their new roles.
"I think that the people in El Salvador hope for and even expect change now that they have elected a new president," said Auxiliary Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez of San Salvador. "They have gone through many changes in the past 30 years. Now, there's an opportunity for the church to work with the new government on social issues that affect the country."
Leadership in El Salvador's Catholic Church became increasingly less progressive after Archbishop Romero's death. Although his successor, Archbishop Rivera, followed the slain archbishop's message, he did so in a more muted tone.
Archbishop Rivera's successor, Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle, took the church in an entirely different direction. A Spaniard and member of Opus Dei, Archbishop Saenz was named to San Salvador in 1995 and worked well with the Nationalist Republican Alliance, or ARENA, whose candidate had won the presidency in 1989.
"We entered into a very cordial period then," Bishop Rosa Chavez said. "It was much different from the 1980s."
Archbishop Jose Escobar Alas, the son of a cattle rancher, succeeded Archbishop Saenz late last year. In his early days, Archbishop Escobar has shown signs of an independent streak.
The clergy is "very pleased with the way he has handled himself thus far. He's been up to the vocation," Father Brackley said. "Many people feel that the country is taking a positive turn with a new president, and this particular archbishop contributes to that positive feeling."
A barometer for Father Brackley was how Archbishop Escobar handled the contentious presidential election. The archbishop's role exemplified the more moderate approach Central American bishops have taken.
"The big difference between now and the '80s is that we're no longer at war," said Father Brackley. "When we were at war, that provoked an outcry in any half-responsible person. But the deaths are slower and more silent. And people are much more likely to work within the system and alongside the government than to criticize it."
"Just as the martyr-bishop said the church of El Salvador could only have a preferential option for the poor, my presidency will have a preference for the vulnerable and the excluded," Funes said in late March.
It was the second time he mentioned the country's former archbishop in the days after winning the election. Catholic voters did not miss the symbolism. For them, Archbishop Romero's name evokes an era when the church was an outspoken critic of the establishment.
Two decades ago, with the region plagued by civil war, church officials such as Archbishop Romero won international praise for questioning the tactics and policies of governments, at times putting themselves at risk. Archbishop Romero, who spoke out during El Salvador's brutal civil war, became one of the war's 75,000 victims when he was killed in 1980.
But he was not an anomaly. His successor, Archbishop Arturo Rivera Damas, Nicaragua's Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo, and Guatemala City's former Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera etched their names into the region's lore as candid religious leaders, observers said.
With Funes' political party -- born out of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front guerrillas -- scheduled to take power in June and the Sandinistas again in control in Nicaragua, Central America's politics recall the 1980s. But few see Catholic Church leaders returning to the role they played in that decade.
"I think what we're seeing now, across the region, is a church in which, contrary to the 1980s, bishops are taking the middle road, saying 'We want change, but we don't want to go back to a time when people were getting killed,'" said Edward Brett, a professor of history at Catholic-run Laroche College in Pittsburgh.
Brett, who wrote a book about the church's role in the 1980s political situation in Central America, recently returned from a fact-finding mission to the region.
"What I found was that many of the bishops still want and are pushing for change, reforms and better lives for the poor, but doing it more carefully than they had. They're saying 'We have to do this slowly and work within the system,'" he said.
Today, the region's most prominent church leader is Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. A globe-trotting, Honduran-born leader who speaks seven languages and was once believed to be on track for the papacy, Cardinal Rodriguez has spoken against poverty, the burden of foreign debt on developing countries, and the U.S. war in Iraq.
Cardinal Rodriguez is the best example of what U.S. Jesuit Father Dean Brackley, a professor of theology at the University of Central America in El Salvador, calls "solid leadership."
His message "might not go as far as bishops once did, but the circumstances are now different," Father Brackley said. "The prophetic church and the church of (the) poor and liberation theology has always been a minority.. .. Most people have been in the middle, and that's more evident now."
Guatemala and Nicaragua serve as examples of how the church has adapted.
In Guatemala, Bishop Gerardi criticized government actions during that country's 36-year civil war, which ended in 1996. In 1998, after years of speaking out against human rights abuses, Bishop Gerardi delivered a truth commission report on the war. He was murdered two days later.
Today, the country is facing a different kind of struggle. More than half the population lives in poverty, and the United Nations says it has one of the world's five-highest homicide rates for countries not at war, with an average of 17 murders per day.
Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruno of Guatemala has taken up the issue by working closely with the president and federal prosecutor. The cardinal helped craft a security plan that will be announced later in April.
In Nicaragua, the Sandinistas, headed by Daniel Ortega, overthrew the dictatorship in 1979. Ortega became president in 1985. During those years, the church went from being supportive to being critical of his Sandinista movement.
Cardinal Obando Bravo, who retired in 2005, initially supported the Sandinistas, then became critical of their tactics. He once called Sandinistas proponents of "godless communism."
Ortega again became president in 2007 and has set up similarly controversial programs. However, he has not drawn the same type of criticism from the current archbishop as he did in the 1980s.
Managua Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes Solorzano took a decidedly neutral stance during the last presidential elections and called on clergy not to participate in the political process.
"By not siding one way or the other, he was able to show that he's a stabilizing force," Father Brackley said. "In that sense, his influence is commendable. He's been able to negotiate extremely difficult times."
No place better exemplifies current church-state relations in Central America than El Salvador, where a president-elect and newly appointed archbishop are adjusting to their new roles.
"I think that the people in El Salvador hope for and even expect change now that they have elected a new president," said Auxiliary Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez of San Salvador. "They have gone through many changes in the past 30 years. Now, there's an opportunity for the church to work with the new government on social issues that affect the country."
Leadership in El Salvador's Catholic Church became increasingly less progressive after Archbishop Romero's death. Although his successor, Archbishop Rivera, followed the slain archbishop's message, he did so in a more muted tone.
Archbishop Rivera's successor, Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle, took the church in an entirely different direction. A Spaniard and member of Opus Dei, Archbishop Saenz was named to San Salvador in 1995 and worked well with the Nationalist Republican Alliance, or ARENA, whose candidate had won the presidency in 1989.
"We entered into a very cordial period then," Bishop Rosa Chavez said. "It was much different from the 1980s."
Archbishop Jose Escobar Alas, the son of a cattle rancher, succeeded Archbishop Saenz late last year. In his early days, Archbishop Escobar has shown signs of an independent streak.
The clergy is "very pleased with the way he has handled himself thus far. He's been up to the vocation," Father Brackley said. "Many people feel that the country is taking a positive turn with a new president, and this particular archbishop contributes to that positive feeling."
A barometer for Father Brackley was how Archbishop Escobar handled the contentious presidential election. The archbishop's role exemplified the more moderate approach Central American bishops have taken.
"The big difference between now and the '80s is that we're no longer at war," said Father Brackley. "When we were at war, that provoked an outcry in any half-responsible person. But the deaths are slower and more silent. And people are much more likely to work within the system and alongside the government than to criticize it."