For the past six decades the Diocese of Cleveland has had a special bond with El Salvador, the only country in the world to bear the name of Christ.
Sixty years ago, the diocese answered the call of then Pope John XXIII to help spread the word of Christ to the many poor in the small Central American country. The diocese established a mission there and its Cleveland Latin American Mission Team, referred to as CLAM, continues to minister there.
The COAR Peace Mission (the Community of Oscar A. Romero), established in 1980 and named in honor of the late archbishop of San Salvador in El Salvador, strives to promote the Gospel values of justice, community and peace in El Salvador through the support of effective programs in health, education and welfare, which assist children and others, to develop their full human potential and to contribute to the betterment of the world. St. Romero, who was shot and killed while celebrating Mass on March 24, 1980 during the Salvadoran civil war, was canonized Oct. 14, 2018.
For the past five years, COAR has sponsored a prayer service on March 24, the feast day of St. Oscar Romero. This year’s service was hosted by St. Rita Parish in Solon, which is one of several parishes in the diocese to have a special relationship with the diocesan mission in El Salvador. The St. Rita Children’s Choir, directed by Mary DeMarco, and David Jaronowski, parish music director, participated in the prayer service.
“What a blessing it is to have you all here, to pray with, to support, to be family with in Christ and to remember Archbishop – and now saint – Oscar Romero,” said Father Tom Behrend, St. Rita pastor, as he opened the prayer service with nearly 150 people in attendance. He offered a greeting to many who were watching a livestream of the service in El Salvador. (Click here to view an archived recording of the prayer service.)
Father Behrend assured those attending and watching the prayer service that those in Cleveland “are in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in El Salvador and all over the world who find inspiration in St. Romero’s life and words. Tonight, we enter the mission of St. Romero by preaching divine mercy, that is, carrying the cross that is the power of Christ in this world that topples everything.”
Father Behrend said the late archbishop was fearless in defending the rights of the weak and suffering, something we should mirror.
“Help us to recognize you (Christ) in the faces of the poorest and most vulnerable people. Be with us as we gather together and pray that your justice will reign throughout the earth,” he said in the opening prayer.
Two St. Rita parishioners, Karem Pérez Lucas and Abigail Pérez Lucas, read Scripture passages in English and Spanish, followed by reflections, called a memories mosaic, from several people who knew St. Romero. The reflections were read by Daphne Held, a St. Rita parishioner, prayer service chairperson and COAR board member, and Deacon Mark Janezic of St. Rita Parish.
The reflections recalled St. Romero as a friend of the rich and poor. One person recalled that St. Romero “didn’t seem like a powerful hierarch to me, more like a brother.” One woman remembered him visiting a festival in San Salvador where so many people turned out they didn’t fit inside the church and Mass had to be celebrated outdoors. “He seemed to me to be a good-humored man, and kind of quiet, like us. Later on in the afternoon there was a long line to see him off. I was the last to say good-bye. When he hugged me, he said ‘Pray for me.’ He wanted me, an old sinful woman, to pray for him! How many times does that happen? It’s supposed to be the priest that prays for you and lifts you up to God, but not with him. He turned that rule upside down,” the woman recalled.
Another woman shared this memory: “Every day, what he said was what gave us life. His sermons were the most eagerly anticipated event of the week. I was working in the communities of San Ramon, and on Sundays I would leave my house and walk to the cathedral. I didn’t have to carry a radio with me to hear his homily, because I could hear it the whole way there; there wasn’t a single house that didn’t have its radio on listening to him. My entire route was a homily! It was a chain of radios with a broadcast as uninterrupted as if it were a single transmission.”
St. Romero had his priorities in order, according to another reflection, which recalled the visit of a United States congressman to El Salvador. He attended Mass one Sunday at the cathedral. The church was overflowing and the congressman was moved by the piety of all the poor people and by St. Romero’s homily. “But what really made an impression on that gringo’s heart was the lousy shape the cathedral was in. ‘This church doesn’t give a good impression,’ he lamented. ‘Doesn’t Monseñor Romero take care of his most important church?’ They told him that when Romero had become archbishop, he’d begun a plan to rebuild, but that soon he’d changed his mind. ‘This is not the most important thing,’ he said. For Monseñor, people came first. And that’s why he said the cathedral would remain that way: half done, as a monument to the people who don’t have a roof over their heads or land to plant on, people who have neither bread nor peace.” Seventh and eighth graders at St. Rita School wrote their own reflections on St. Romero and three shared them at the prayer service.
“St. Oscar Romero is a very influential man, who through a time of darkness and separation brought so many people together. St. Romero inspires me to be strong in my faith and he helps guide me to be loving, fair, and gracious. With the inspiration of St. Romero, I feel motivated to help change the world and create a place full of respect, equality and serenity,” wrote Rylee Malafarina.
“St. Oscar Romero used his position to speak out against the injustices in El Salvador. He was brave and continued to praise the Lord and speak out, despite the dangers. St. Romero can inspire me to be righteous and to stand up for those being oppressed,” said Samuel Rodriguez. And Eliza Tambor wrote, “St. Romero inspires me to help those who have no hope and need the most help they can get. He inspires me to consider the small blessings in life such as shelter and food. He can inspire everyone in the world to remember those who aren’t as fortunate as ourselves, and that they deserve the help they need as well.”
Prayer service attendees received a tulip when they entered the church and they were invited to place the flowers in front of the altar during a musical interlude.
In the closing blessing, Father Behrend prayed the following: “Christ Jesus, we trust that you will walk with us on our journey of discipleship, wherever it may lead. May our walk be one of true solidarity, as St. Romero’s was.”
After the prayer service, all were invited to a reception in the gathering area.
These parishes are among those in the diocese that have a strong relationship with COAR and the mission in El Salvador.
- Resurrection Church in Solon’s Blessed Sacrament chapel is dedicated to the four churchwomen were killed in El Salvador in December 1980 during the civil war. The parish hosts a prayer service in honor of the women each year near the anniversary of their deaths.
- St. Barnabas Parish in Northfield will host Father John Ostrowski, a current CLAM missionary and pastor of San Pedro Parish in Teotepeque, El Salvador, in May. He will attend the priestly ordination of Deacon Jeffrey Lindholm, who spent a summer ministering with him in El Salvador. Father Ostrowski also will visit St. Rita and St. Albert the Great parishes during his visit.
- St. Dominic Parish in Shaker Heights supports the community of Chiltiupan, El Salvador with a college scholarship program, a clinic, a Salvadoran construction team, monthly food baskets and more. The parish has about six mission trips to El Salvador each year and provides for four Salvadoran staff members who facilitate the trips.
- St. Rita Parish CLAM Team supports the Salvadorans through education, group travel, mission trips and sharing of funds and resources. They hope to have a teen mission trip in 2026. In addition, they have been collaborating with Father Ostrowski and longtime CLAM missionary Father Paul Schindler in La Libertad, El Salvador to assist with any needs that arise within their parishes. The focus for 2025-2026 will be repairs and improvements to the church and convent in Teotepeque, as well as college scholarships.
- St. Joseph Parish in Strongsville has a sister parish in San Jose Villanueva, El Salvador referred to as SJV, that was established by Father Bob Sanson and grown by Pat Greco with in-country visits beginning in 2004. It is a spiritual partnership that reciprocates as the parishes pray for each other, parish families, priests and leaders. There also is an annual scholarship drive that raises funds for the Catholic students in SJV to help pay for their tuition, shoes, books and other needs. This overview and coordination is provided by and supports Epilogos Charities Inc, a US based nonprofit that in turn helps support the same community in El Salvador. In addition to the scholarships, the parish supports smaller projects in the SJV community through the “Sharing Tree” and one envelope per year. Students at the parish school, Sts. Joseph and John (a combination of St. John Neumann and St. Joseph in Strongsville), also maintains a letter exchange program. SVJ teachers also visited Strongsville through the Connecting Communities and Cultures program.
And finally, the COAR Peace Mission, led by Executive Director Mary Stevenson and based at the Center for Pastoral Leadership in Wickliffe, has been supporting the COAR Children’s Village and COAR School in Zaragoza, El Salvador, since the Salvadoran Civil War in the 1980s. Currently, there are about 30 children in permanent, residential, foster care there. COAR supplies all of the funding for food, medicine, medical specialists, clothing, school tuition and supplies, housemothers, psychologists, social workers and everything they need to begin to heal from the trauma they experienced before coming to COAR. The COAR school educates about 1,000 students in grades pre-K to12. This year, COAR started offering scholarships to local, non-resident students in order to help them further their education at the high school level.
For more information on COAR, click here. The nonprofit will have its annual benefit on April 26 at the Center for Pastoral Leadership. The event includes Mass, a dinner, raffle and more. Tickets begin at $75. Sponsorships are also available. Get more details or purchase tickets here.
Prayer service photos provided courtesy of COAR Peace Mission.