Interview with Jon Sobrino, SJ
EDITOR'S NOTE: On November 21st, 2008 at the School of the Americas annual vigil and action, Marie Dennis Co-President of Pax Christi International, sat down with Jon Sobrino, SJ, to talk about his recent book, No Salvation Outside the Poor: Prophetic Utopian Essays, recipient of the Pax Christi USA 2008 Book Award, as well as liberation theology, his brother Jesuits who were martyred in El Salvador in 1989, and the state of the world as he sees it. The following is excerpted from that interview. To watch this interview in its entirety on-line, visit the PCUSA website here.
Marie Dennis: Fr. Sobrino thank you very much for being here with us. Many years ago right after the death of your brothers and Elba and Celina in El Salvador, I had the gift of meeting you briefly in Washington, D.C. At that time, amazingly you spoke about hope. You also described your brothers as men who knew joy. Can you say a little bit about that? What did you mean?
Jon Sobrino: I think what I meant when I said I have hope, basically, is that life, history goes on. And that the death of the Jesuits and so many others--Ellacuria and Celina did not stop going on; not only that, but somehow it moved me to go on. And so, not to fall into despair, into tragedy, but something else. Now when I think--now I have written that the source of hope is love. So hope is not in my understanding of the concept, it is not a wish I have, a wish and I am certain it will happen. When you see love--people loving each other--important things emerge from us as human beings. And one of them is hope. Is that irrational or whatever you want to call it?
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Also in this issue:
A chance for change
By Dave Robinson
In his acceptance speech, President-elect Obama reminded us all that “this victory alone is not the change we seek; it is only the chance for us to make that change.” As we all move ahead to face the daunting challenges of this moment—ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, breaking our addiction to fossil fuels and the violence that attends that addiction, bringing justice to working families and overcoming poverty, and engaging in a real national conversation on race and privilege, we will remain a movement of faithful Catholics, grounded in a commitment to nonviolence, guided by prayer and animated in our efforts by the wisdom of Catholic social teaching.
The breakthrough election of America’s first African-American president has confirmed the power of hope to overcome fear and division. That hope must now empower us all to act. While we take hope in a nation transformed by November’s historic outcome, we remain humbled by the truth that although a great barrier was breached, the racism that built that barrier remains a pernicious reality.
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