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AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast

El Salvador's Long Road to Justice: A Conversation with Almudena Bernabeu

The Prophet Habakkuk writes: “For the vision is a witness for the appointed time, a testimony to the end; it will not disappoint. If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.” Perhaps more familiar to listeners, though, are the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Waiting — particularly during this time of Advent — is a frustrating, if familiar, aspect of faith. Waiting for justice, all the more so. But, as our Advent prayer likely reveals, we are called to be contemplative and active; we do not waiting passively. God invites us to have a hand in bringing about this reign of justice. This episode challenges listeners to reflect on the call to active waiting, to participation in the works of justice. Caitlin-Marie Ward, senior advisor on migration in the Jesuit Conference's Office of Justice and Ecology, talks with Almudena Bernabeu about the long, painstaking journey she has undergone to bring some semblance of justice to those killed during the bitter civil war in El Salvador. Bernabeu is a renowned international lawyer with a long career in the fields of Transitional Justice and International Criminal and Human Rights Law. She led the investigation and prosecution of the massacre of the six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter at the University of Central America in El Salvador by members of the Salvadoran army during that country's civil war. It’s a timely conversation, as November 2019 marked the 30th anniversary of their murders. Please remember to subscribe to AMDG wherever you listen to podcasts.
Broadcast on:
11 Dec 2019

The Prophet Habakkuk writes: “For the vision is a witness for the appointed time, a testimony to the end; it will not disappoint. If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.” Perhaps more familiar to listeners, though, are the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Waiting — particularly during this time of Advent — is a frustrating, if familiar, aspect of faith. Waiting for justice, all the more so. But, as our Advent prayer likely reveals, we are called to be contemplative and active; we do not waiting passively. God invites us to have a hand in bringing about this reign of justice. This episode challenges listeners to reflect on the call to active waiting, to participation in the works of justice. Caitlin-Marie Ward, senior advisor on migration in the Jesuit Conference's Office of Justice and Ecology, talks with Almudena Bernabeu about the long, painstaking journey she has undergone to bring some semblance of justice to those killed during the bitter civil war in El Salvador. Bernabeu is a renowned international lawyer with a long career in the fields of Transitional Justice and International Criminal and Human Rights Law. She led the investigation and prosecution of the massacre of the six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter at the University of Central America in El Salvador by members of the Salvadoran army during that country's civil war. It’s a timely conversation, as November 2019 marked the 30th anniversary of their murders. Please remember to subscribe to AMDG wherever you listen to podcasts.