In 1977, when Romero became the archbishop, state violence was spinning out of control. Hundreds of priests and Catholic workers across the country had been murdered, injured, or threatened, including one especially prominent victim: a forty-nine-year-old Jesuit priest and celebrated advocate for the poor, named Rutilio Grande. A close personal friend of Romero’s, he was gunned down by right-wing assassins a month before Romero moved to San Salvador.
