(27 Nov 1994) Spanish/Nat
Latin America is mourning one of its most prominent religious leaders.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Arturo Rivera Damas, who helped bring peace to El Salvador, suffered a fatal heart attack Saturday.
The Archbishop of San Salvador was 72.
By the thousands, Salvadorans turned out to pay their last respects to their beloved Catholic leader.
The Archbishop was taken ill in the early hours of Saturday.
He complained of chest pains and was rushed to a private clinic, but doctors could do little - he died two hours later.
El Salvador's Catholic radio station announced his death with "great sadness".
The government called the Archbishop's death "an irreparable loss" and expressed "its most profound sorrow".
Rivera Damas was a key mediator between the government and the leftist rebels
at the start of talks in the mid-1980s that eventually led to peace in 1991.
He frequently slated both sides in the conflict and regularly used his Sunday pulpit address to do so.
In his last sermon, delivered last Sunday, he insisted the government find a peaceful solution to El Salvador's problems without using military force.
However, he aroused less hostility among conservatives than did his predecessor, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who was assassinated in 1980.
Rivera Damas had recently returned from a three-week tour of Canada and Europe.
SOUNDBITE:
"Monseigneur Rivera was not only an excellent Christian and an exemplary pastor,
but also, as every good son, was an honest citizen, and extraordinary citizen. A man with deep wisdom."
SUPER CAPTION: Auxiliary Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez
SOUNDBITE:
"Monseigneur Rivera, for the Salvadoran people, was the pastor who knew how to conduct this church during difficult moments. He inherited the mantle of Archbishop from Monseigneur Romero and worked without fail to bring about the end of the war by means of negotiation and dialogue during a time when that was considered treason by the government and was frowned upon by the left. Monseigneur Rivera was a great collaborator and supported the negotiations for peace."
SUPER CAPTION: Jesuit Father Luis Cardenal
Nationwide mourning has now started and many more are expected to bid farewell to the Archbishop, whose body is lying in state in San Salvador's main basilica.
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