The Day of the Cross: May 3rd each year
El Salvador is a land of wonderful traditions and great artistic celebration. Like most of Latin America and the Caribbean, it is also a land of great and rich religious and cultural syncretism (blending of traditions). The Day of the Cross is an old tradition in El Salvador where the people offer God the […]
COAR Kids Volunteer at Cancer Hospital: Divina Providencia
On Sunday, April 2nd, a group of COAR teenagers visited the Divina Providencia Cancer Hospital to visit with the patients and learn the value of volunteering and serving others in need. The hospital was opened in 1969 by the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of Santa Teresa who wanted to give poor Salvadorans a place to stay […]
1st time ever: COAR WINNER: Scholarship to the Jesuit University (UCA)
COAR had a simple beginning. War was raging in the countryside and displaced families, women and children were fleeing to the outskirts of San Salvador for safety. A Cleveland priest working in the parish of Zaragoza in El Salvador noticed the growth in child war refugees and decided to do something about it. Through the […]
Posadas: A great Latin American Christmas tradition
Are your childhood Christmas memories some of your fondest memories? As adults, do you remember those traditions with such an air of nostalgia? Well, COAR Children’s Village is keeping one 400 year old Latin American tradition alive: The Christmas Posadas. The term Posada is one of many Spanish words for “inn” and it […]
Romero’s Message Needed to Solve Gang Violence in El Salvador
In May of 2015, there were more than 600 murders in El Salvador – a country with a population of approximately 6 million. The Salvadoran Civil War ended almost 20 years ago, but, the wonderful people of El Salvador have not seen the ‘peace’ promised by the Peace Accords! To be honest, the old left-right […]
COAR Students Celebrate the Life and Martyrdom of Oscar Romero
On May 22nd, 2015, COAR’s 900+ students celebrated the life and sacrifice of Oscar Romero. The following day, in San Salvador, 250,000 stood in the baking hot sun – happily – awaiting the message from Pope Francis that Oscar Romero was finally Beato Romero! Back at COAR, there was a lovely Holy Mass. Friday was […]
Oscar Romero “Smiles Down upon El Salvador” during his Beatification
May 23rd, 2015, over 250,000 Salvadorans flooded the streets surrounding the Divino Salvador del Mundo monument in the capital city to celebrate the beatification of slain Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero. The Archdiocese had constructed a temporary stage in front of the monument. Throngs of people lined the streets emanating outward like roots of hope from […]
The Sant’Egidio community in El Salvador joins in solidarity with COAR & peace
In the late fall of 2014, the Community Sant’Egidio in El Salvador reached out to COAR for the first time. They came to COAR to be in solidarity with our children and to share their message of Peace in a society that is being ripped apart by youth violence. There is probably no place on […]
Maybe Some Justice for the 4 Church Women?
At 1230pm on Wednesday, April 8th, 2015, former Salvadoran General Carlos Vides Casanova, walked onto the tarmac at the Comalapa International airport in El Salvador, a deported man – a man with an uncertain future. After 25 years in Florida, his deportation back to El Salvador was now a reality. Vides Casanova had been head […]
COAR & the Town of Zaragoza together lead the Stations of the Cross
Each year, COAR’s school works with the local Parish (Our Lady of the Pillar) to lead the Stations of the Cross (Via Crucis). It is truly a community event drawing upon students, COAR residents, parents, parishoners and even our wonderful nuns who come from Spain and Peru originally. In the US, our culture […]