 Following study of theology and philosophy in El Salvador, Canada, Rome, Belgium, and Ecuador he began working as a priest in his native country in 1961.While working in the Mejicanos slum of San Salvador, he founded the Cursillos de Cristiandad movement in El Salvador.In 1968, he became parish priest of Suchitoto, and founded the first Christian base communities, rooted in Liberation Theology and the reforms of the Second Vatican Council of 1965 in Medellín Conference of Latin American Bishops of 1968.