COFOA expands its organizing base to La Libertad Department

At the invitation of Fr. José León Chávez, COFOA has initiated a series of 12 leadership development sessions for 45 leaders at Santa Rosa de Lima in Ciudad Arce. This effort marks the expansion of COFOA faith based organizing into the Department of La Libertad. COFOA leaders recognize the need to expand their effort beyond La Paz, San Vicente, and Usulutan Departments to build the power needed to address environmental, violence and economic issues critical to their families and communities.

Fr. José and the leaders of Pastoral Social ministries are seeking to respond to the call by Pope Francis and the tradition of Salvadoran Archbishop (soon to be Saint) Oscar Romero. In the words of one leader attending the first workshop, “Catholics should become more involved in social justice and not only meet to pray. We must act for the transformation of our communities. Our families face many problems.”