Guest speakers: Sr. Dianna Ortiz, founder of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition, Washington DC and Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gomez of the Resurrection Lutheran Church in El Salvador; Thomas Quigley, former Latin American Policy Advisor for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was the respondent

Oscar Romero's Legacy featuring past award recipients Bishop Medardo Gomez and Sister Dianna Ortiz Wednesday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m.

The Oscar Romero Award was established in response to the turbulent and violent times of the 1980s in South and Central America, especially El Salvador and Guatemala, when unthinkable acts of terror, torture, and deaths dominated the news. These horrific acts continue—have even increased—as today more than 150 governments are engaged in torture.

Although the Oscar Romero Award is named after a Catholic priest who was responding to a particular time and specific issues in his country, the award demonstrates that he transcends the particular and speaks a universal truth that is for all time and all people. The Oscar Romero Award symbolizes what is most exemplary in a person of faith with human rights. To show how his legacy lives on, two former recipients will speak about how receiving the Oscar Romero Award has touched their lives and guided their activities. Bishop Medardo Gomez received the Oscar Romero Award in 1990 and Sr. Dianna Ortiz in 2004. Bishop Medardo Gomez is the Lutheran Bishop of El Salvador. His life has been threatened numerous times and Resurrection Lutheran Church has been bombed three times. Still, Bishop Gomez believes that the church’s mission includes political involvement, and that bishops often have to speak out and act in ways that are critical of the government—even though such actions are punishable by death in El Salvador. Ursuline Sr. Dianna Ortiz is a U.S.-born survivor of torture in Guatemala. She believes that the man who supervised her torture by Guatemalans is a U.S. citizen, but that his identity will never be revealed because of the likelihood of implicating U.S. officials. Sr. Ortiz is the Executive Director of Torture Abolition and Survivors Coalition International, the only organization founded by torture survivors, whose mission is to abolish torture wherever it occurs.