Nineteen years after the El Salvador assassination of six Jesuits, their housekeeper and their housekeeper’s daughter, Creighton students memorialized the tragedy with an 8 p.m. service at St. John’s on Sunday.

The service began with about 75 students gathered around the baptismal font inside the church, where representatives lit candles for each of the eight victims.

After a song led by Maria Teresa Gaston, Creighton Center for Service and Justice director, the group processed outside to the steps of the church, where a memorial display had been erected.

Ana Barrios, director of Catholic Charities of Omaha’s Juan Diego Center, and Juana Marcos, who was a student at the University of Central America in San Salvador at the time of the murders, spoke of their experiences with the Jesuit martyrs.

“Their experience of life and of faith was contagious to each of us,” Gaston translated from Marcos’ Spanish. “Today they have gone, but they are present. They are real. Their lives continue evolving in our lives, the lives of the people. They animate us and give us the courage to fight for justice.”

According to a 1995 United Nations report, the 1989 El Salvador slayings were linked to 19 graduates of the School of the Americas, a U.S. training facility for Latin American military officials in Fort Benning, Ga.

On Nov. 20, Gaston will accompany 57 students to Georgia for the annual protest of the SOA, which is now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

Arts & Sciences sophomore Kaitlin Campbell attended the memorial service in preparation for the trip.

“I thought it would be a good starting place for looking at the violence perpetrated by the SOA,” Campbell said.

The Creighton group is one of two Omaha-area buses going to the protest. The other bus includes students from Creighton Prep, Mercy High School, College of St. Mary, Duchesne Academy and Briar Cliff College, as well as parishioners from St. Vincent DePaul and Sacred Heart.

“It’s turning into really quite a wonderful event in the year, and then it feeds other good things – good leadership, the core team, the simple food on the way down,” Gaston said. “The best part is that I heard a couple of people saying they weren’t finding a niche until they went on this retreat. People really felt excited about groups. I mean, everybody has a small group so you get to know people that way, and then, you know, just that sense of community.”