Raising two daughters with her husband on the outskirts of San Salvador, Clelia Estrada de Cruz instilled in them her own parents’ values. “They taught us to be generous with others, and to share,” Clelia says.
The family belongs to Cristo Salvador, a resilient parish in the Zacamil neighborhood of Mejicanos, El Salvador, where Maryknoll Father John Spain serves. Maryknoll has a long history in this marginalized community.
“The parish promotes mission, and the integration of its different ministries,” Clelia says. “We are in an urban zone with a lot of difficult situations.”
Clelia, 67, has worked for the Archdiocese of San Salvador in its Episcopal Vicariate for Human Development since 1991. She has served in disaster relief, HIV/AIDS ministry and health care, and teaching integral ecology based on the encyclical Laudato Si’.
Now, she works with children up to 7 years old and their families. In this country wracked by decades of bloodshed, her program breaks cycles of violence starting in the home.
“The cultural belief is that the belt and yelling are the ways to discipline children,” she says. “We try to replace this with a discipline of love and tenderness. We teach different methods.
“Working with the Catholic Church has been a blessing,” adds Clelia.
Her daughter Carolina Guadalupe, an architect, works in marginal areas. Her other daughter, Sofía Beatriz Cruz Estrada, 34, follows in her mother’s footsteps by working closely with the Church.
After receiving the sacraments of Communion and confirmation, Sofía helped with catechism classes, often walking the dangerous streets to the parish alone. “I just knew I had to go,” she recalls. At about 20, she joined the youth ministry, where she soon was given a leadership role.
Approximately a year later, the pastor, Father Joaquín Álvarez, asked Sofía to represent the parish at vicariate meetings. The vicariate, in turn, sent her to meetings at the archdiocesan level. Sofía then represented the Archdiocese of San Salvador, serving on the national Bishops’ Youth Commission. She joined the World Youth Day pilgrimages to Poland and Panama and attended a special young adults gathering in Rome.
In 2019, Sofía received an extraordinary invitation. The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life was establishing its first International Youth Advisory Body. Sofía was among the 20 young people around the world selected for this new advisory committee.
During her four years on the committee, Sofía and other members reflected on relevant issues together. Each year for Pope Francis’ celebration of young people on the Solemnity of Christ the King, they responded to his choice of Scripture verse, and the Holy Father considered their input for his message.
For World Youth Day in Portugal two years ago, the committee was “blessed to give ideas to create the Stations of the Cross,” Sofía says.
She says she is amazed — and humbled — by her own trajectory. “God has put me here,” she says.
Sofía had earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing, but began to pursue social work. “I like working with people,” she says. As part of a master’s degree in project management, she did an internship at Caritas, where she later worked in a joint project with Catholic Relief Services.
Her work brought her into the same circles as Clelia, her mother.
“We shared the same work, in different ways,” Sofía says. Their active participation in the parish, too, serves to “strengthen the bond between mother and daughter.” She says she “never feels alone in mission.”
Sofía credits Maryknoll Fathers Spain and John “Jack” Northrop for supporting her ministry and for transmitting joy and enthusiasm. For young people, it can be difficult to express themselves, she notes. “Their openness has been a great help.”
After the COVID-19 pandemic, Father Joaquín called on Sofía to restart the parish’s youth ministry and “reanimate the youth.” Once again, she makes her way along the well-worn path to Cristo Salvador.
After all, she says, “We have come to serve.”
Featured image: Sofía Cruz and Clelia Estrada gather with Maryknoll Fathers John Northrop (far left) and John Spain and with pastor of Cristo Salvador parish, Father Joaquín Álvarez (far right), in the Zacamil neighborhood of Mejicanos, in metropolitan San Salvador. (Courtesy of Sofía Cruz/El Salvador)
