Translating Sorrow and Grief into Action: El Salvador's Human Rights Abuses, U.S. Diocesan Newspapers, and Catholic Mobilization, 1977–1982

Abstract

Abstract:The U.S. Catholic press was an important source of reporting on El Salvador during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Catholic newspapers' reporting offered readers a nuanced and comprehensive account of the country's violence and human rights abuses as well as in-depth and critical analyses of U.S. foreign policy. The existing scholarship on the Catholic press and Central America has focused almost exclusively on national publications, overlooking diocesan newspapers and their role in shaping U.S. Catholics' perceptions of global events. This article examines how U.S. diocesan newspapers were central to an emerging transnational network of Catholic activists who reported on El Salvador and facilitated grassroots collaboration and mobilization.