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atholic NEWS HERALD
li 863S
May Volume
8
£802*-
14,
1999
t
Number 35
i
&
Serving Catholics
ln$ide
in
Western
Nortli
Carolina
in
the Diocese of Charlotte
Music group's visit is
latest
Diocese of Charlotte prepares for refugees'
chapter
arrival
...Page
3
By
hope
story of faith,
JIMMY ROSTAR
Associate Editor
From
CHARLOTTE
Pope John II visits
Romania
...Page
— Meymis Ehza-
beth Guevara Serpas' face doesn't show the years of pain and suffering she and her family endured during the war. She smiles happily instead, talking earnestly of hope for the future. The woman nods to the five young men assembled around her. Holding guitars, violins and percussion instru-
the cover Paul
in
7
ments, they, too, wear contented smiles despite their individual stories
Cardinal Arinze to celebrate
of tragedy.
The group
Mass in Charlotte
has gathered at St. Peuptown Charlotte to present a concert of songs that tell of their experiences and ideals. Their journey to Charlotte is the latest chapter in a story about two communities many miles apart but connected by a concern for peace and justice. The parish family of St. Peter's and the community called Segundo Montes in northeast El Salvador have ter
...Page
14
Local News Living
in
been in union since 1990. Through various forms of outreach, the Char-
the Faith Lexington
Award
congregation has learned much about their southern neighbors' plight. They've learned even more about the lotte
parish gives first Salesian
Church
.
Salvadorans'
...Page
15
It is
spirit.
a spirit
tion, patience
marked by determina-
and
faith.
"In our struggles, our sadness and
Annual event celebrates
life
...Page
13
fvcry Week Editorials
& Columns ...Pages
4-5
Entertainment ...Pages
Pentecost Sunday "Then
there appeared to
as offire, which parted
is
10-11
them tongues and came to
on each one of them. And they with the holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as allfilled
the Spirit enabled
them
— Acts
2:
to proclaim.
3-4
"El Grape" Serpas and her five friends are collectively known as "El Grupo Morazan," Salvadorans from Segundo Montes now in their teens and 20s who grew up in a Honduran refugee camp. Members of their families were among the more than 75,000 who died during El Salvador's decadelong civil war.
May 23
rest
were
our happiness, God is always with us," Serpas says through a translator. "He has given us strength and hope to keep going forward." The young woman pauses before announcing the music group's next tune. It's called "I Believe in God."
Photo by Jimmy Rostar
Members of
Grupo Morazan" play
their instruments during the group's Peter Church in Charlotte. The six-member music up of Salvadorans in their teens and 20s, visited Charlotte as
"El
May 4 performance at St.
group, made part of their first U.S. tour.
new lives. The refugees
settled in
Segundo
wrought in their homeland, the then-young children found a tentative escape in music as the war raged.
Montes, a community about 100 miles northeast of San Salvador. While there, the six who would become "El Grupo" continued to pursue music
Several years passed. Against a backdrop of scarred countryside and scattered peace talks, refugees with whom the six young people sought asylum more than 8,000 of them returned to El Salvador in 1989 to
with an optimistic passion. Their May 4 stop at the Charlotte parish is part of their first tour in the United States. Thousands of miles and several years have passed since "El Grupo
Relatively safe from the destruction
—
—
first performed, but memoremain vivid in their lively music. Works such as "Monseiior," written in memory of the murdered Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, recall specific martyrs and their eflForts at peace and religious freedom. "Segundo Montes" honors the
Morazan"
build
ries
community's
namesake. Father Segundo Montes, a Jesuit priest who See el
GRUPO,
page
9