{"id":3571,"date":"2024-12-02T23:13:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T23:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/?p=3571"},"modified":"2025-12-31T15:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T15:20:10","slug":"love-exists-in-tonacatepeque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/love-exists-in-tonacatepeque\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Exists in Tonacatepeque"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s Wednesday. Robert \u201cBob\u201d Cunningham<\/a> gets up early in Zaragoza, El Salvador, where he and his wife Elizabeth \u201cLiz\u201d Cunningham<\/a> serve as Maryknoll lay missioners. He sets out for Ciudad Merliot, 45 minutes away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 8 a.m., Bob meets up with Mercedarian Father Jonathan V\u00e1squez and other volunteers. They drive for an hour to a juvenile correctional facility in Tonacatepeque, where they share the Eucharist, food and fellowship with 180 teenage inmates. \u201cWe pack the van, then say a prayer that we bring light and hope to the boys,\u201d Bob says. \u201cLove exists in the youth prison of Tonacatepeque,\u201d he adds. \u201cI have seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming to El Salvador in early 2022, the couple was eager to accompany Maryknoll Father John Northrop to La Esperanza prison (also known as \u201cMariona\u201d). At this large, overcrowded jail in the capital city, Father Northrop heard confessions and offered Mass. \u201cWe\u2019d socialize with the men, sing in the choir and hand out food,\u201d Liz says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But prison ministry in the Central American country was about to change drastically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Salvador had been plagued for decades by gangs. Following a particularly harrowing spate of homicides, in March of 2022 President Nayib Bukele<\/a> instituted a \u201cstate of exception.\u201d Certain constitutional rights were suspended. Armed forces swept up<\/a> anyone suspected of belonging to or abetting a gang. The prison population tripled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By early fall, chaplaincy visits to La Esperanza were halted. Just when the need was greatest<\/a>, the country\u2019s prison gates slammed shut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat are we called to do?\u201d Bob and Liz asked. It was a familiar question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Maryknoll
(Left to right) Maryknoll Lay Missioner Bob Cunningham, Marta Elena Ar\u00e9valo Barraza, Rubia del Carmen Ben\u00edtez Brioso and Mercedarian Father Jonathan V\u00e1squez load the van for a trip to Tonacatepeque. (Courtesy of Robert Cunningham\/El Salvador)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Originally from Long Island, New York \u2014 where he and Liz met in high school \u2014 Bob joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps after college. His placement took him inside a California county jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The facility \u201csmelled and sounded like a zoo,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAfter I finished my year of service, I never wanted to go inside a jail again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob and Liz raised their three children in the Boston area, where he worked for nonprofits and universities. But he never forgot what he had witnessed behind bars. \u201cI couldn\u2019t get it out of my heart,\u201d he says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t live my life as if this world didn\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He began to volunteer in prison ministry, and soon Liz joined him. Eventually Bob became the chair of Concord Prison Outreach and even received an award from the Massachusetts Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been involved in everything from job training to alternatives to violence to retreats and catechesis. The content is important,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s nothing compared to the presence of just showing up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On mission in El Salvador, a door opened at the end of last year. Father V\u00e1squez, who coordinates a network of Catholic chaplains throughout the country, called a meeting for volunteers. Some 20 people including Bob showed up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are approximately 93,000 inmates in jails,\u201d says Father V\u00e1squez, whose order was founded to care for people in captivity. \u201cWhat keeps me up at night is that they might think the Church has abandoned them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Father
Father V\u00e1squez, coordinator of Catholic prison ministry in El Salvador, is joined by volunteers Carlos Enrique Gon\u00f3n, Maryknoll Lay Missioner Robert Cunningham and Antonio Guevara Ortiz for a weekly visit to the juvenile correctional center in Tonacatepeque. (Courtesy of Robert Cunningham)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The state of exception, he explains, caused \u201ca rupture\u201d in access to correctional facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past, imprisoned leaders ran their gangs<\/a> from behind bars. Under current protocols, all communication with the outside world \u2014 such as visits, phone calls and internet connection \u2014 is blocked. Families often go months without word<\/a> of their detained relatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLike so many mothers who can\u2019t enter the jails for visits, who try to communicate with their children and don\u2019t know where they are \u2014 whether they are still alive, if they have eaten, if they are sick \u2014 that\u2019s what the Church is going through,\u201d Father V\u00e1squez says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have not been able to enter any of the prisons for adult males,\u201d he says, \u201conly centers for minors.\u201d One of those sites is the Tonacatepeque Penal Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arriving on Wednesdays at the juvenile correctional facility, the team unloads the van. Guards inspect the donated baked goods. Some young inmates carry the bins and sound equipment to an outdoor recreation area, where they help set up the altar. The liturgy is enlivened by Father V\u00e1squez\u2019s guitar and singing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the boys in Tonacatepeque are ages 15 to 17. Dressed in white t-shirts, shorts and shoes, they sit on the ground. \u201cMany of them have had difficult histories that led them to a place like this,\u201d Father V\u00e1squez says. Each case is different, but all the boys come from broken families living in poverty. Some parents are themselves in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their neighborhoods, the priest continues, joining the maras<\/em>, the local term for gangs, is a real temptation<\/a>: \u201cThey give them belonging, they give them safety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Cunninghams display artwork made by the children in their full-time ministry at the El Patronato Lidia Coggiola community center in Zaragoza. (Octavio Dur\u00e1n\/El Salvador)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Liz notes that the couple\u2019s full-time ministry in Zaragoza<\/a> offers alternatives to disadvantaged children and youth. The community center El Patronato Lidia Coggiola<\/a> provides tutoring, programs and scholarships. In contrast, the boys at Tonacatepeque have \u201clittle or no support,\u201d Bob says. \u201cA lot of their support was in the gangs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His hope, the lay missioner says, is that when the boys are released, they seek \u201csome form of family and community in church, in faith.\u201d Fifteen have asked for the sacraments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boys may not understand the rituals or prayers, Bob says, but at some moment, no matter how fleeting, all have known love in their lives. The visitors try to reconnect them to that. \u201cThey have known suffering, they are suffering,\u201d Bob says. \u201cBut it is healed somehow through that saving power of love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Mass, the volunteers joke and converse with the inmates, and some of the boys let down their guard. \u201cThere is an opportunity for exchange,\u201d Bob says. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of small but meaningful interactions over time, but who knows where that can lead?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we say or do is just a drop in the bucket,\u201d Father V\u00e1squez says. The real message, he continues, is simple: \u201cWe are here with you. We won\u2019t abandon you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boys hold out the hems of their shirts and the visitors fill them with sweet breads, pie and French toast slices. It gets messy, Bob says, adding, \u201cPeople\u2019s lives are messy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prison rules forbid giving the boys anything else \u2014 even a holy card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One recent Wednesday, the team was met with unsettling news. More than half of the 420 inmates had been abruptly moved to another facility. And only 30 to 45 will be allowed to attend Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach one of them is a child of God,\u201d Bob says. \u201cHope can be found in small acts of humanity and compassion and in the joy of connecting with people. May Pope Francis\u2019 call to be pilgrims of hope lead us to enter the darkest of places.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Featured Image: Suspected gang members are arrested in San Salvador, El Salvador. (CNS\/Jos\u00e9 Cabezas\/Reuters\/El Salvador)<\/em>

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Maryknoll lay missioner serves in prison ministry for youth in El Salvador, the country with the world\u2019s highest incarceration rate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_eb_data_table":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,25,43],"tags":[98,54,99,100,104,102,101,103,60,105,106,107],"class_list":["post-3571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-departments","category-featured-stories","category-winter-2025","tag-state-of-exception","tag-deirdre-cornell","tag-el-salvador","tag-el-salvador-president-nayib-bukele","tag-jubilee","tag-maryknoll-father-john-northrop","tag-maryknoll-lay-missioner-elizabeth-liz-cunningham","tag-maryknoll-lay-missioner-robert-cunningham","tag-maryknoll-magazine-winter-2025","tag-mercedarian-father-jonathan-vasquez","tag-prison-ministry","tag-tonacatepeque-penal-center"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLove Exists in Tonacatepeque - 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