Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Salvador

Under three archbishops, Luis Chávez y González, Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, and Arturo Rivera y Damas, the archdiocese saw over fifty years of a progressive pastoral ministry influenced by the currents of the Second Vatican Council and a Latin American church trend that later was known as Liberation Theology. Critics interpreted the Church's advocacy for the poor as fomenting a socialist revolution and targeted the clergy for assassination. Two bishops, including Archbishop Romero, were assassinated, as were twenty six priests (including Fr. Rutilio Grande), three nuns and countless catechists and Church workers.

The post-Civil War period saw a return to traditional spirituality under the watch of the conservative Archbishop Fernando Sáenz Lacalle, a former military chaplain and member of Opus Dei.

In November 2015, sex abuse scandals in the Archdiocese of San Salvador became public[1] when the archdiocese's third highest ranking priest, Jesus Delgado, who was also the biographer and personal secretary of the Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero[2] was dismissed by the archdiocese after its investigation showed that he had molested a girl, now 42 years of age, when she was between the ages of 9 and 17.[2] Due to the statute of limitations, Delgado could not face criminal charges.[3] In December 2016, a canonical court convicted Delgado and two other El Salvador priests, Francisco Galvez and Antonio Molina, of committing acts of sex abuse between the years 1980 and 2000 and laicized them from the priesthood.[1][4][5][3] In November 2019, the archdiocese acknowledged sex abuse committed by a priest identified as Leopoldo Sosa Tolentino in 1994 and issued a public apology to his victim. Tolentino was suspended from ministry and began the canonical trial process.[6] Another El Salvador priest was laicized in 2019 after pleading guilty to sex abuse in a Vatican trial and is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in a criminal trial.[1]

Bishops of San Salvador

Bishop			Term start	Term end	Appointed by	Ref.
1	José Jorge de Viteri y Ungo	José Jorge de Viteri y Ungo (1802–1853)	27 January 1843	5 November 1849	Gregory XVI	[7]
			6 years and 292 days
2	Tomas Miguel Pineda y Saldaña	Tomas Miguel Pineda y Saldaña (1791–1875)	10 March 1853	6 August 1875	Pius IX	[8]
			22 years and 159 days
3	José Luis Cárcamo y Rodríguez	José Luis Cárcamo y Rodríguez (1836–1885)	6 August 1875	12 September 1885		[9]
			10 years and 27 days
4	Antonio Adolfo Pérez y Aguilar	Antonio Adolfo Pérez y Aguilar (1839–1926)	13 January 1888	11 February 1913	Leo XIII	[10]
			25 years and 29 days

Archbishops of San Salvador

Archbishop			Term start	Term end	Appointed by	Ref.
4	Antonio Adolfo Pérez y Aguilar	Antonio Adolfo Pérez y Aguilar (1839–1926)	11 February 1913	17 April 1926	Pius X	[10]
			13 years and 65 days
5	José Alfonso Belloso y Sánchez	José Alfonso Belloso y Sánchez (1873–1938)	22 December 1927	9 August 1938	Pius XI	[11]
			10 years and 230 days
6	Luis Chávez y González	Luis Chávez y González (1901–1987)	1 September 1938	3 February 1977		[12]
			38 years and 155 days
7	Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez	Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (1917–1980)	3 February 1977	24 March 1980	Paul VI	[13]
			3 years and 50 days
8		Arturo Rivera y Damas S.D.B. (1923–1994)	28 February 1983	26 November 1994	John Paul II	[14]
			11 years and 271 days
9		Fernando Sáenz Lacalle (1932–2022)	22 April 1995	27 December 2008		[15]
			13 years and 249 days
10	José Luis Escobar Alas	José Luis Escobar Alas (1959–)	27 December 2008	Incumbent	Benedict XVI	[16]
			14 years and 303 days

• Mariano Ortiz y Urruela (1866–1873)
• Luis Cárcamo y Rodríguez (1871–1875) (overlapped with Ortiz y Urrela)

• Tomás Miguel Pineda y Saldaña (1848–1853), appointed Bishop here
• Santiago Ricardo Vilanova y Meléndez (1913–1915), appointed Bishop of Santa Ana
• José Alfonso Belloso y Sánchez (1919–1927), appointed Archbishop here
• Pedro Arnoldo Aparicio y Quintanilla, S.D.B. (1946–1948), appointed Bishop of San Vicente
• Rafael Valladares y Argumedo (1956–1961)
• Arturo Rivera y Damas (1960–1977), appointed Bishop of Santiago de María and later Archbishop of San Salvador
• José Eduardo Alvarez Ramírez, C.M. (1965–1969), appointed Bishop of San Miguel
• Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (1970–1974), appointed Bishop of Santiago de María
• Marco René Revelo Contreras (1978–1981), appointed Bishop of Santa Ana
• Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez (1982–present); elevated to Cardinal in 2017

• Juan Antonio Dueñas y Argumedo, appointed Bishop of San Miguel in 1913
• Francisco José Castro y Ramírez, appointed Bishop of Santiago de María in 1956
• William Ernesto Iraheta Rivera, appointed Bishop of Santiago de María in 2016