On March 24, 1982, a date commemorating the second anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, an ecumenical group of faith leaders in Tucson, Arizona declared various churches “a sanctuary of God for the displaced of Central America.” For the rest of the 1980s, this social and ecclesial movement challenged faith communities in the United States to discern their vocation to the undocumented other, despite persecution by the U.S. government.

Faith communities in the U.S. are again discerning the degree to which they will ecclesially embody a preferential option for the displaced poor through the practice of sanctuary. This dissertation examines the current displacement crisis of Central Americans and how the 1980s Sanctuary Movement serves as a critical reference point for developing an ecclesiologically attuned theology of sanctuary. As the term “sanctuary” becomes increasingly politicized and polarized, it is essential to reclaim the religious and theological dimensions of this concept and practice. Ultimately, the dissertation argues that sanctuary is about the mutual salvation of the persecuted and the persecutor, for in the last analysis it is about preserving life, especially the life of the persecuted poor through whom our own salvation flows.