Priest Under Fire recounts the remarkable life story of a bold Salvadoran priest—Padre David Rodríguez—who in 1970 embraced the Catholic Church’s call to serve the poor and consequently became an arch enemy of the state and the oligarchy. Affectionately known as “Padre David,” he inspired thousands of peasants, founded a peasant cooperative and union, challenged the rich and their agents (including the U.S. government), helped forge ties between a church looking for its true center and Marxist revolutionary organizations, and played a key role in El Salvador’s guerrilla front, the FMLN (Farabu ... More

Priest Under Fire recounts the remarkable life story of a bold Salvadoran priest—Padre David Rodríguez—who in 1970 embraced the Catholic Church’s call to serve the poor and consequently became an arch enemy of the state and the oligarchy. Affectionately known as “Padre David,” he inspired thousands of peasants, founded a peasant cooperative and union, challenged the rich and their agents (including the U.S. government), helped forge ties between a church looking for its true center and Marxist revolutionary organizations, and played a key role in El Salvador’s guerrilla front, the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front). After the civil war ended, free elections were held and the voters elected Rodríguez to four terms as a member of the Legislative Assembly, El Salvador’s congress. Rodríguez’s life story provides a fascinating and revealing case study in political leadership and liberation theology, showing how Catholic doctrine awakened religious leaders in El Salvador and how those leaders, in turn, awakened the peasantry and the poor who eventually became the backbone of El Salvador’s popular and revolutionary movements. Although it is difficult to generalize from the life of one individual, Padre Rodríguez is not unlike many other religious leaders—bishops, priests, and nuns—who embraced liberationist ideas in the 1970s, organized the poor, and challenged the Salvadoran state. Thus, examining the life of one such leader in detail yields not only a valuable case study but a nuanced look at the strategies, style, and efforts of all religious leaders in El Salvador during this critical historical period.