The Pope on Blessed Oscar Romero: his impact is still felt in our time

"Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) – This morning five hundred pilgrims from El Salvador, in Rome to give thanks for the beatification of the bishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, met with the Holy Father in the Paul VI Hall. The Pope defined the Salvadoran bishop martyr as a “good pastor, full of love for God and close to his brothers who, living the dynamism of the Beatitudes, gave his life in a violent way while celebrating the Eucharist, the supreme sacrifice of love, sealing with his own blood the Gospel that he announced”.

“From the very beginning of the life of the Church, Christians have always believed that the blood of martyrs is a seed for Christians, as Tertullian said. Today too, in a dramatic way, the blood of a great number of Christian martyrs continues to be shed on the field of the world, with the certain hope that will bear fruit in a rich harvest of holiness, justice, reconciliation and love of God. But we must remember that one is not born a martyr. Archbishop Romero remarked, 'We must be willing to die for our faith, even if the Lord does not grant us this honour. ... Giving life does not only mean being assassinated; giving life, having the spirit of martyrdom, means offering it in silence, in prayer, in the honest fulfilment of one's duty; in this silence of everyday life, giving life a little at a time'”.

“Indeed, the martyr is not someone relegated to the past, a beautiful image that adorns our churches and which we recall with a certain nostalgia. No, the martyr is a brother, a sister, who continues to accompany us in the communion of saints and who, united with Christ, does not ignore our earthly pilgrimage, our sufferings, our anxieties. In the recent history of this beloved country, the witness of Msgr. Romero has joined that of the other brothers and sisters … who are a treasure and well-founded hope for the Church and for Salvadoran society. The impact of his commitment can still be felt in our times”.

Just a few weeks before the beginning of the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, the example of Msgr. Romero constitutes, for his beloved nation, a “stimulus to a renewed proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to announce it in a way that all people can understand, so that the merciful love of the Divine Saviour enters the heart and the history of this good people. The holy people of God in pilgrimage in El Salvador have a series of difficult tasks ahead of them, which require, as in the rest of the world, an evangelising announcement that allows witness, in the communion of Christ's one Church, of authentic Christian life”.

“On this occasion, I make my own the sentiments of the Blessed Msgr. Romero, who with the well-founded hope longed to see the happy time when the terrible suffering of many of our brothers, due to hate, violence and injustice, would disappear. May the Lord, with a shower of mercy and goodness and a torrent of grace convert all hearts, and may the beautiful homeland He has given you, that bears the name of the Divine Saviour, be transform into a country where all are redeemed and all are brothers, without differences, since we are all one in Christ our Lord”.

The Holy Father concluded with some unscripted remarks. “I wish to add something we are forgetting”, he said. “The martyrdom of Msgr. Romero was not fulfilled at the moment of his death – it was a martyrdom of witness, of prior suffering and prior persecution, up to his death. But even afterwards, following his death – I was a young priest and a witness to this – he was defamed, slandered, his memory despoiled, and his martyrdom continued also for his brethren in the priesthood and in the episcopate. This is not hearsay, but rather things I have heard. Or perhaps it is best to see it thus: a man who continues to be a martyr. After having given his life, he continues to give it by allowing himself to be assailed by all this misunderstanding and slander. This gives me strength. Only God knows the stories of those people who have given their lives, who have died, and continue to be stoned with the hardest stone that exists in the world: language”."

(http://www.news.va/en/news/the-pope-on-blessed-oscar-romero-his-impact-is-sti)

The Best Indian Catholic Posts - Oscar Romero

The beatification of the slain Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, in his own city today, moves him one step closer to receiving the title long ago bestowed by the acclamation of his people: “San Romero de los Americas”. The honouring of the man comes 35 years after he was gunned down as he celebrated Mass in the chapel of a hospital, having preached a sermon the day before in which he called upon Salvadorean soldiers, as Christians, to stop carrying out the Government’s repression of the people, and spoken out continuously about the abuse of human rights and the plight of the poor.

(http://humanrightsindia.blogspot.in/2015/05/raised-to-altars-one-who-fell-for-poor.html)

Pope Francis: Archbishop Romero - live the violence of love that makes each one of us overcome selfishness and so that there be no more such cruel inequality between us

Pope Francis has sent a letter to the Archbishop of San Salvador, Msgr. José Luis Escobar Alas, on the occasion of the beatification of Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero Galdámez.

In the letter, the Holy Father recalled Archbishop Romero's words as he wrote of the necessary to live “the violence of love, that left Christ nailed to the Cross, that makes each one of us overcome selfishness and so that there be no more such cruel inequality between us.”

In so doing, those who invoke him as intercessor and protector will 'find in him the strength and courage to build the Kingdom of God, to commit to a more equal and dignified social order.'

(http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-sends-letter-for-the-beatification-of)

Oscar Romero beatification draws huge El Salvador crowds

Oscar Romero - the Roman Catholic archbishop murdered during the 1980-92 civil war - has been beatified at a ceremony in El Salvador attended by huge crowds.

At least 250,000 people have filled the streets of the capital San Salvador for the ceremony.
It is the last step before Archbishop Romero is declared a saint.
He was shot dead by a sniper as he celebrated Mass in a hospital chapel on 24 March 1980.

Giant TV screens have been placed across the capital so that those away from the stage can watch the ceremony.

When the US-backed Salvadorean army was using death squads and torture to stop leftist revolutionaries from seizing power, he was not afraid to speak out in his weekly sermons, she says.

"The law of God which says thou shalt not kill must come before any human order to kill. It is high time you recovered your conscience," he said in his last homily in 1980, calling on the National Guard and police to stop the violence.

"I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression."

That was a sermon that cost him his life. A day later, while giving mass, he was hit through the heart by a single bullet.

(http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32859627)

El Salvador celebrates Oscar Romero but divisions remain

By Katy Watson BBC Mexico and Central America reporter.

"Even gangs have declared a truce in honour of Monsignor Romero".

The market-sellers outside San Salvador's cathedral have been doing a roaring trade in recent days.

A dollar for a poster of a smiling Oscar Romero or how about a baseball cap with his face on it? A driver winds down his window and stops outside a stall to hand over some cash for a t-shirt and then goes on his way.
People are getting ready for a day of celebration.
At least 250,000 people are expected to descend on the small capital of San Salvador on Saturday as they witness the beatification of one of the region's biggest heroes.
Archbishop Oscar Romero was not just a churchman. He took a stand during El Salvador's darkest moments.

When the US-backed Salvadorean army was using death squads and torture to stop leftist revolutionaries from seizing power, he was not afraid to speak out in his weekly sermons.

"The law of God which says thou shalt not kill must come before any human order to kill. It is high time you recovered your conscience," he said in his last homily in March 1980, calling on the National Guard and police to stop the violence.

"I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression."

That was a sermon that cost him his life. A day later, while giving mass, he was hit through the heart by a single bullet, killed by a right-wing death squad.

With him died hopes of peace. In the months after Oscar Romero's assassination, the violence intensified and more than a decade of civil war followed. The conflict left around 80,000 people dead.

Flying in to El Salvador, you land at the international airport named after Archbishop Romero. Your passport is stamped with his little portrait too. Small details that show he has a big following here.

But he was not a figure loved by all. For some, he was more guerrilla than a man of God.

"He wasn't political but he lived in a very conflictive political time. Everything was politicised," says Father Jesus Delgado, Oscar Romero's friend and personal assistant.

"There was a line in the middle and the ones who supported the government were good and the ones who were against the government were bad - it was that simple."

But he also faced opposition within the Church. Oscar Romero's path to sainthood had been stalled for years.

Several conservative Latin American cardinals in the Vatican blocked his beatification for years because they were concerned his death was prompted more by his politics than by his preaching.

"We cannot overlook that many of his most vocal opponents were in the church," says Professor Michael Lee, a theologian at Fordham University.

"It was not just a matter of faith and politics as two separate things but the political dimension of faith itself."

Some linked Father Romero to Liberation Theology. It was a movement that grew out of the region's poverty and inequality with the belief that the Church could play a role in bringing about social change.

Some radical priests became involved in revolutionary movements but friends of Oscar Romero say he was not one of them.

In the unstable political context of El Salvador though, there was a lot of mistrust.

It took decades for that mentality to change. Not until Pope Francis became the first Latin American pontiff was his beatification unblocked.

The Pope declared him a martyr who had died because of hatred of his faith, ending the decades-long debate.

"Francis becoming Pope represents a whole sea change because the Latin American church is now in charge of the universal church," says Dr Austen Ivereigh, author of a biography of Pope Francis.

"That's why this has huge symbolic significance, the unblocking of the cause of Romero. It really does signal the arrival of the Latin American church in Rome." 

Romero's younger brother has said that he remembers his brother as a "committed" man.

For Oscar Romero's supporters in El Salvador, this about turn has been a long time coming.

"Romero was their hero and that he is recognised as a saint of the church gives them huge affirmation and encouragement and inspiration," says Julian Filochowski, who is the chair of the Oscar Romero Trust in the UK.

"He's like Martin Luther King. It puts him in that same orbit as great iconic figures."

In a country where religion is all important, he also divides opinions.

The Catholic Church is undoubtedly powerful but more than a third of people here now identify themselves as evangelical. Several I spoke to said they did not recognise him as a saintly figure.

Flying the flag for the Romero family on Saturday is Gaspar Romero, the Archbishop's youngest brother who says he remembers his sibling as a hard-working and committed man.

"He was always very humble and dedicated to his studies," he says. "He was committed to protecting the poor, if he was alive today he would be doing the same work."

And it is work that many feel is more relevant than ever - El Salvador is fast becoming one of the most violent places in the world.

Many feel the country is in a worse place than it ever was during civil conflict. This time though, there is no Oscar Romero to make a stand. 

(http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32856123)

Mgr Oscar Romero béatifié ce samedi au Salvador

Jour de fête au Salvador ce samedi: le cardinal Angelo Amato, préfet de la Congrégation pour les causes des saints, et l’envoyé spécial du pape François, présidera la messe de béatification de Mgr Oscar Romero, l’archevêque de San Salvador assassiné en pleine messe il y a trente-cinq ans. Sur la place « Salvador del Mundo », lieu emblématique de la capitale salvadorienne, quelques 250 000 personnes sont attendues. Le gouvernement a décrété une journée de congé national et les deux principaux gangs du pays, les maras MS 23 et le barrio 18 ont déclaré une trêve après 3 mois d’affrontements. pour l'occasion.

Lors de la célébration, seront présentés aux fidèles des objets personnels de Mgr Romero, dont sa chemise ensanglantée; chemise qu'il portait le jour de sa mort, le 24 mars 1980, lorsqu'il tomba sous les balles de miliciens d'extrême-droite.

Figure emblématique d’une Église persécutée parce que défenseure des pauvres, Mgr Romero dénonçait avec force les injustices sociales, les assassinats et les violences commises impunément par les escadrons de la mort.

Outre le cardinal Amato, venu de Rome, les organisateurs attendent des cardinaux du Honduras, du Nicaragua, de Panama et de Cuba. Ils espèrent également la venue de deux cardinaux nord-américains ainsi que celle d'une centaine d'évêques de tous les coins du monde, de la Pologne à la Nouvelle Guinée.

(http://www.news.va/fr/news/mgr-oscar-romero-beatifie-ce-samedi-au-salvador)

Bishop Romero was a man of God

(http://opusdei.org.in/en-in/article/archbishop-oscar-romero-was-a-man-of-god/)

VALE A PENA VIVER (e morrer) ASSIM

1. Há vidas que sabem a morte. Há mortes que sabem a vida.

Faz hoje, dia 24 de Março, 35 anos que D. Óscar Romero, Arcebispo de S. Salvador, foi assassinado.

A morte foi arrebatá-lo no meio da Missa e no auge da missão. A Missa celebra a entrega de Cristo pela humanidade. A missão de Óscar Romero foi uma entrega, em Cristo, para que a humanidade dos mais pobres fosse respeitada.

Ninguém o aconselhava a ser assim. Aliás, todos lhe recomendavam que não fosse assim. Era mais normal. Mais cómodo. Mais tranquilo. Provocaria menos ondas e muito menos danos.

Ninguém obrigou D. Óscar Romero a fazer o que fez. Ele é que se sentiu obrigado a proceder como procedeu.

2. Eis o modelo de um cristão (e, a fortiori, de um bispo) cuja actualidade não pára de crescer. A muitos títulos, é um exemplo para todos. Permitia-me destacar apenas três características que avultam da sua trajectória.

Foi Óscar Romero, em primeiro lugar, um homem de profunda espiritualidade. A sua acção era o corolário da sua oração. Foi junto de Deus que sentiu o alento, o estímulo e o apoio para anunciar a verdade e denunciar as injustiças.

Afirmou-se, em segundo lugar, como alguém estruturalmente independente em relação ao poder. Esta liberdade, que escorre no Evangelho, não o inibia de conviver com os poderosos, mas fazia-o sem subserviências.

Como os apóstolos da primeira hora, não calava o que via e ouvia (cf. Act 4, 20). Alinhado foi só com a sua consciência, jamais com interesses.

Finalmente, recusou ser neutral, ainda que à custa da própria vida. Foi a voz dos sem voz, o eco dos espezinhados e amordaçados. Envolveu-se. Empenhou-se. Não recuou nem perante as ameaças. Não pensou no que outros podiam pensar. Não andou às curvas, mas em linha recta. Não trazia máscaras. Foi autêntico. Foi firme. Foi ele. Foi Cristo nele.

3. Óscar Romero conseguiu ver Deus no lugar onde Deus Se encontra: no ser humano, particularmente nos mais desfavorecidos.

Profundamente espiritual, votou a sua vida a Deus e devotou o seu sangue pelo próximo. Porque era Homem de Deus, tornou-se um Homem para os homens: um Homo Dei é sempre um Homo homnibus.

A sua palavra interpela-nos ainda hoje quando nos diz que «temos cristãos de missas dominicais e de semanas injustas».

Não vacila nos princípios: «Jamais pregamos a violência. Só a violência do amor, a que deixou Cristo cravado numa cruz, assume cada um para vencer os seus egoísmos e para que não haja desigualdades tão cruéis entre nós. É a violência do amor, a da fraternidade, que converte as armas em foices para o trabalho».

4. A Igreja e o mundo precisam de pastores assim: cheios de Deus, cheios de amor, cheios de humanidade. Capazes de amar até ao fim. Capazes de perdurar para lá do fim.

D. Óscar foi morto por causa da sua verticalidade. Recebeu ameaças sucessivas para que se calasse. Não se calou. Humilde, considerava não ser digno da «graça do martírio».

Mas as balas surgiram e irromperam, cruéis, pela Igreja em que oficiava.D. Óscar Romero levou a Eucaristia à vida e à morte. Foi alguém que leu o Evangelho nos livros e o reescreveu na (sua) existência.

Morreu com um tiro no coração. Porque era o seu coração que mais incomodava.

Curiosamente é no coração das pessoas que D. Óscar subsiste. E é no coração de Deus que D. Óscar se mantém vivo e vivificante.

Vale a pena viver assim. Vale a pena morrer assim. Tanto mais que quem assim morre nunca se ausenta. Permanece para sempre!

(http://theosfera.blogs.sapo.pt/)

Archbishop Romero's Last Hours on Earth

With Archbishop Oscar Romero's cause of canonization moving forward, we offer an article by Fernando Saenz, with his memories of March 24, 1980, the day Romero was assassinated.

While it's true that a picture is worth a thousand words, an anecdote is also sometimes worth more than a thousand speeches. So even though I don't know how to put down in words the memory I preserve of Archbishop Romero, I think the small details of his final day on earth, although not exhausting his rich personality, can be an eloquent testimony that transcends the limits of my words.

In El Salvador, the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross organizes every month a gathering for priests. Archbishop Romero used to attend these quite frequently. I was then delegate vicar of Opus Dei in El Salvador (which I ceased being when the Pope named me auxiliary bishop of Santa Ana a few years later).

About 10.30 that morning I went to pick him up at the Archbishop's offices, then located in the present minor seminary. Before leaving, Archbishop Romero suggested that we could take advantage of that meeting with priests to study a document on the formation of seminarians. We went by car to San Diego beach, where a house had been lent to us for the activity with priests. Due to a misunderstanding, unfortunately the house was locked when we arrived.

So the priests who had arrived had to sit on the grass in the small garden attached to the house. There, sitting under the shade of some palm trees, we read and discussed the document Archbishop Romero had brought with him. Afterwards we put down a table cloth on the ground and enjoyed a pleasant meal and conversation. After some time, the caretaker arrived and apologized for the confusion; he brought out some chairs for us, which we heartily thanked him for.

We continued our get-together, and I remember, among other things, that Archbishop Romero pointed out to the pastor of the San Salvador cathedral that the liturgical vestments used there, which were quite old and of great historical value, were at risk from the urban guerilla squads that frequently entered the church. He suggested to him that, while the unrest in the country continued, it might be a good idea to transfer them somewhere else for safe-keeping.

Archbishop Romero, who many only know through his bold weekly commentaries (after his homily on Sundays) about the dramatic events then afflicting the life of our country, was a good and simple bishop, and his life of piety was obvious both in the rich spiritual content of his preaching and in such material details as concern for the vestments and objects used for God's worship.

I also recall that during that brief gathering, Archbishop Romero spoke with the parish priest of San Jose de Guayabel about the possibility of planting corn and beans in the land around his parish to provide food for those studying at the seminary. The conversation with the priests touched on many topics, including Padre Pro and the Mexican "cristeros."

About 3 in the afternoon, he suggested that it might be good to end our gathering. He wanted to return right away to the city, since he had a commitment there. I dropped him off at the Divine Providence Hospital about 3:30 or 4. Soon afterwards, during the Offertory of the Mass he was celebrating, he was shot with an explosive bullet.

Whenever I remember that day, what stands out in my memory are the less well-known virtues of Archbishop Romero: his concern for priests, his sincere piety, his simplicity. These are qualities I often had a chance to observe in him, also in that last meeting in his life when no one knew he would soon be meeting with death.

Published in El Adelanto Bañezano, August 1995

(http://opusdei.org.in/en-in/article/archbishop-romeros-last-day-on-earth/)

Archbishop Oscar Romero is going to be a deeply beloved saint

The Prelate of Opus Dei has issued a brief statement about the upcoming beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero, soon to be declared a martyr by Pope Francis.

The Holy Father Francis has authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate a decree of martyrdom for the Servant of God Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez. Archbishop Romero (El Salvador: 1917-1980) was assassinated out of hatred for the faith on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Holy Mass.

On learning of the news, Bishop Javier Echevarria said: "The martyrs present a challenge to all men and women, both believers and non-believers, but they are a shining light especially for those who have placed their hope in God. I am sure that Archbishop Oscar Romero is going to be a deeply beloved saint.

"I met Archbishop Romero in Rome," the Prelate of Opus Dei said, "during one of his visits to Saint Josemaria, in 1970. He was a pious person, detached from his own interests and dedicated to his people. His struggle for sanctity was palpable. Archbishop Romero was one of the first bishops who, following the death of Saint Josemaria in 1975, wrote to Paul VI asking that his cause of canonization be opened. I am certain that now, from Heaven, he continues interceding with his good friend Saint Josemaria for this portion of the People of God that is Opus Dei."

Saint Josemaria and Archbishop Romero had known one another since 1955. The Archbishop of San Salvador had great esteem for the spirit of Opus Dei and had frequent contact with the apostolic work of the faithful of the Prelature in El Salvador. In 1970 he came to Rome and had several conversations with Saint Josemaria. As Fr. Antonio Rodriguez Pedrezuela recounts in his book A Sea Without Shores, the founder of Opus Dei was concerned that the Archbishop have the opportunity to rest during his stay in Rome, because he realized the tense situation he faced back in El Salvador.

The affection was mutual, and when the founder of Opus Dei died, Archbishop Romero, in his postulatory letter for Saint Josemaria's cause of canonization, expressed his gratitude "for having received from him encouragement and strength to be faithful to the unchangeable doctrine of Christ and to serve the Holy Roman Church with apostolic zeal." 

In the same letter he wrote: "Msgr. Escriva's life was marked by a continuous dialogue with God and a deep humility. One could see that he was a man of God and that he dealt with people with great refinement, affection and good humor." A letter addressed to Blessed Alvaro del Portillo a few months after the founder's death shows that his affection and esteem for Saint Josemaria had only grown stronger.

He also had a deep friendship with Archbishop Fernando Saenz, who was Vicar of Opus Dei in El Salvador, and later his successor as archbishop of San Salvador. The day he was assassinated, Archbishop Romero spent the morning with Fernando Saenz at a recollection for priests organized by Opus Dei. Afterwards Fernando Saenz accompanied the Archbishop to the church where he was to celebrate Mass. Saenz recalls: "They killed him during the offering of the bread and wine. It was, as it were, a marvelous external sign of his having offered his life for his people, for the poor, for justice, for peace."

(http://www.opusdei.org/en-us/article/archbishop-oscar-romero-is-going-to-be-a-deeply-beloved-saint/)

Oscar Romero received spiritual direction from Opus Dei

On March 24, 1980, Archbishop Oscar Romero was shot during the celebration of Mass by the death squadrons of El Salvador’s military government. Today his reputation is undergoing a second assassination: Critics have responded to the floating of his name for beatification by wrongly charging the man with supporting violence, communism, and heresy. Those who would make the archbishop a radical hero have offered their own version of these claims in approving tones. Both are wrong.

Murals and t-shirts showing Romero alongside Salvador Allende and Che Guevara are common in Central America, yet his visage sits somewhat uncomfortably beside theirs. Romero did not hesitate to condemn capitalism, but at the same time he was an anti-communist. In his sermons he cautioned against the dangers of atheistic, materialist Marxism. In one of his homilies, Romero chastised leftists for criticizing American imperialism while turning a blind eye to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

While the left has come to glorify Romero, right-wing politicians in El Salvador have accused him of inspiring leftist guerrilla violence. In reality, Romero sought a peaceful solution to El Salvador’s troubles. In his third pastoral letter, written in 1978, Romero condemned leftist guerrilla violence as “terrorist” and “seditious.” In the fourth letter written one year later, the archbishop of San Salvador reminded the nation that violence was justifiable only in extreme situations when all other alternatives have been exhausted, citing Catholic just war theory.

The twentieth century was a difficult one for the Latin American Church. In the 1970s and 1980s, military juntas ruled most of the region. In Argentina, the bishops’ close ties to the dictatorship of Jorge Videla and their silence on the tortures and disappearances in the country led many Argentineans to lose their trust in the Church. By contrast, in Nicaragua many clerics supported armed revolution against the Somoza dictatorship and supported the Marxist Sandinistas.

Even a man as saintly as Dom Helder Camara—the bishop who defended Brazil’s poor against the country’s military dictatorship—believed that Marx should do for Christianity in the twentieth century what Aristotle did for medieval Thomism. By contrast, in a 1978 homily Romero said: “Since Marxist materialism destroys the Church’s transcendent meaning, a Marxist church would be not only self-destructive but senseless.”

Romero avoided the blinkered anti-communism of Argentina’s bishops and defended the vulnerable against military violence, seeing the hypocrisy of rulers who claim to be Christians yet persecute the people. At the same time, he understood the dangers of Marxism, condemning the Marxist guerrilla movement that terrorized El Salvador’s ruling class. Ernesto Cardenal, the Trappist monk who in the 1980s was a minister in Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, wrote that before becoming a Christian, one first must become a Marxist-Leninist. Romero rejected this: His personal hero was Pope Pius XI for resisting fascism and communism at the same time.

Romero also stood apart from liberation theology, distinguishing between the liberation of communism and the liberation Christ offers. In the 1980s, some Latin American priests inspired by Marxism wanted to deny Communion to the wealthy. Romero resisted this saying in a 1979 homily: “We are not demagogically in favor of one social class; we are in favor of God’s reign, and we want to promote justice, love, and understanding, wherever there is a heart well disposed.”

Few know that Romero received spiritual direction from an Opus Dei priest and personally knew the future saint and Opus Dei founder Josemaria Escriva. When the latter died in 1975, he wrote a letter to Paul VI asking the Pope to jumpstart his canonization process, writing: “Monsignor Escriva . . . was able to unite in his life a continuous dialogue with Our Lord and a great humanity; one could tell he was a man of God, and his manner was full of sensitivity, kindness, and good humor.” As recommended by Opus Dei priests, Romero wore a cilice on Fridays as a form of self-mortification until his death.

One of the firmest supporters of Romero’s beatification has been Pope Benedict XVI. Both before and after his election to the papacy he has expressed his enthusiasm for the cause, going so far as to say that he has “no doubt” that Romero will be declared blessed someday.

During his 1983 pilgrimage to El Salvador, John Paul insisted on visiting Romero’s tomb despite the pleas of Latin American bishops and the Salvadoran government. John Paul II asked local priests to open the door of the cathedral which was locked up by the military. He immersed himself in prayer for a long time in front of Romero’s tomb.

John Paul II again demonstrated his affection for Oscar Romero by insisting—again against the wishes of many churchmen—that during the 2000 Jubilee Year celebration in Rome’s Coliseum Romero’s name be mentioned among the great martyrs of the Americas.

It is a name we are likely to hear again.

(http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2013/03/oscar-romeros-exaggerating-critics)

Pope Francis Knows: Oscar Romero is the People’s Saint

In another extraordinary break with recent conservative orthodoxy, Pope Francis clears the leftist Salvadoran archbishop for sainthood. 

On Tuesday, Pope Francis decreed that the 1980 assassination of Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, was a Martyrdom for the Faith.

 

Such a designation clears the way for Romero’s beatification, the final step before being declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

There is much that this former Archbishop of San Salvador shares with Pope Francis.

 

Both are seen as champions of the people, with an especially keen sense of the godlessness of any system that oppresses and subjugates the poor.

 

Both are unlikely leaders in the Roman Catholic Church, given their support for conservative theology and “order” prior to their elevation as leaders in the Church.

 

Both surprised their supporters in taking a much more critical stance toward the abuses of capitalism than would have been expected of a conservative leader.

Preaching “good news to the poor” was part of Jesus’ own self-understanding.

 

Jesus’ critique of society was received as radical and societally upsetting to the powers-that-be in his own day, no less than in our own.

 

When it came time to appoint a new Archbishop in San Salvador, Romero was selected because he was perceived to be the “safest” candidate who would support the status quo – the small, wealthy magnates who controlled the economy and benefited greatly from the subjugation of the people.

But then, the leaders of El Salvador, backed by the United States, looked on in horror as the mild-mannered, almost wimpy Roman Catholic prelate became the emboldened, passionate, and fearless “voice of the voiceless,” as he was called.

 

His defense of the common, ordinary people of El Salvador, and his attendant condemnation of violence and oppression by their leaders, made him dangerous and revolutionary in the eyes of the ruling party and its allies.  Something had to be done about his increasingly harsh and popular challenge to the existing systemic oppression of the people.

 

By 1979, government death squads began their killing rampage. Such was the backdrop as, on Sunday, March 23, 1980, Romero took to his pulpit and preached a sermon in which he called on El Salvadoran troops and national guardsmen to defy orders and stop killing their brother and sister citizens:  “In the name of God, then, and in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise daily more loudly to heaven, I plead with you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: put an end to this repression!”

The next day, as Romero celebrated mass in the small, humble chapel of a convent where he lived, he was felled by a single sharp-shooter assassin’s bullet through his heart as he stood at the altar.

 

The assassin was never apprehended, and those who planned the assassination were never named or held accountable.

 

The next few years would see over 75,000 El Salvadoran people killed in one of the longest, bloodiest conflicts in the history of this hemisphere.

Last summer I visited El Salvador, where the people continue to be oppressed, now by two violent gangs that in effect rule the country, while the government and police are impotent (and possibly uninterested) in stemming the violence.

 

I visited Romero’s humble apartment at the convent where he lived, whose two tiny rooms barely have enough space for his bed, reading chair and lamp.

 

I stood at the altar where he died, saying mass, and preaching that “a life offered for others is a sure token of resurrection and of victory.”

Oscar Romero, now 35 years dead, is alive and well and living in the hearts of the everyday people of El Salvador.

 

Congregations are named for him, prayers are said in his name, and his image is ubiquitous, despite attempts to quell his legacy and power, even in death.

 

His proclamation of non-violence and God’s love for the poor and the oppressed sustains people throughout El Salvador to this very day.

 

The ruling powers-that-be continue to try to bury his words and memory, but his liberating message lives in the hearts of the people.

Perhaps the thing that most unites Pope Francis and Oscar Romero is their shared belief that faith can never be separated from secular politics and economics.

 

Pope Francis’ condemnation of the abuses of capitalism is reviled as radical and Marxist by the world’s powers-that-be with the same vehemence that greeted Romero’s critique.

 

Much of Francis’ current challenge to the structures of society that oppress the poor are worthy of the old Southern criticism of clergy who had the audacity to bring faith to politics and question the secular status quo, “Now he’s gone from preaching’ to meddlin’!”  There is no sign that Pope Francis is going to stop meddlin’.

Pope Francis’s declaration that Romero is a martyr because of his faith, not just his politics, speaks volumes about the way in which this new Pope understands the relationship between what we believe and how we act in the world.

 

Using faith to critique politics and economics will not make Francis any friends among those who benefit from oppressing the poor, but it will make him the people’s Pope.

 

And he will be in good company.

 

One day, the Roman Catholic Church will proclaim Romero to be what he already is in El Salvador:  the People’s Saint.

 

(http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/08/pope-francis-knows-oscar-romero-is-the-people-s-saint.html)

Óscar Romero

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (15 August 1917 – 24 March 1980)[1] was a bishop of the Catholic Church in El Salvador, and declared a martyr by Pope Francis on 3 February 2015. He became the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. He spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture. His spiritual life drew much from the spirituality of Opus Dei. In 1980, after attending an Opus Dei recollection, Romero was assassinated while offering Mass.

Catholics in El Salvador often refer to him as "San Romero". Even outside of Catholicism, Romero is honored by other Christian denominations, including the Church of England and Anglican Communion through the Calendar in Common Worship, as well as in at least one Lutheran liturgical calendar. Archbishop Romero is also one of the ten 20th-century martyrs depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey in London. In 2008, Europe-based magazine A Different View included Romero among its 15 Champions of World Democracy.

On 12 March 1977, Rutilio Grande, a progressive Jesuit priest and personal friend of Romero who had been creating self-reliance groups among the poor, was assassinated. His death had a profound impact on Romero, who later stated, "When I looked at Rutilio lying there dead I thought, 'If they have killed him for doing what he did, then I too have to walk the same path'". Romero urged the government to investigate, but they ignored his request. Furthermore, the censored press remained silent.

Tension was noted by the closure of schools and the lack of Catholic priests invited to participate in government. In response to Fr. Rutilio's murder, Romero revealed a radicalism that had not been evident earlier, speaking out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture.

In 1979, the Revolutionary Government Junta came to power amidst a wave of human rights abuses by paramilitary right-wing groups and the government in an escalation of violence that would become the Salvadoran Civil War. Romero criticized the United States for giving military aid to the new government and wrote to President Jimmy Carter in February 1980, warning that increased US military aid would "undoubtedly sharpen the injustice and the political repression inflicted on the organized people, whose struggle has often been for their most basic human rights." Carter, concerned that El Salvador would become "another Nicaragua", ignored Romero's pleas and continued military aid to the Salvadoran government.

As a result of his humanitarian efforts, Romero began to be noticed internationally. In February 1980, he was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Louvain. On his visit to Europe to receive this honor, he met Pope John Paul II and expressed his concerns at what was happening in his country. Romero argued that it was problematic to support the Salvadoran government because it legitimized terror and assassinations.

Archbishop Romero denounced the persecution of members of the Catholic Church who had worked on behalf of the poor: "In less than three years, more than fifty priests have been attacked, threatened, calumniated. Six are already martyrs--they were murdered. Some have been tortured and others expelled [from the country]. Nuns have also been persecuted. The archdiocesan radio station and educational institutions that are Catholic or of a Christian inspiration have been attacked, threatened, intimidated, even bombed. Several parish communities have been raided. If all this has happened to persons who are the most evident representatives of the Church, you can guess what has happened to ordinary Christians, to the campesinos, catechists, lay ministers, and to the ecclesial base communities. There have been threats, arrests, tortures, murders, numbering in the hundreds and thousands....But it is important to note why [the Church] has been persecuted. Not any and every priest has been persecuted, not any and every institution has been attacked. That part of the church has been attacked and persecuted that put itself on the side of the people and went to the people's defense. Here again we find the same key to understanding the persecution of the church: the poor." (Óscar Romero, Speech at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, Feb. 2, 1980).

By the time of his death, Archbishop Romero had built up an enormous following among Salvadorans. He did this largely through broadcasting his weekly sermons across El Salvador. In these sermons, he listed disappearances, tortures, murders and much more each Sunday. This was followed by an hour-long speech on radio the following day. On the importance of these broadcasts, one writer noted "The archbishop's Sunday sermon was the main source in El Salvador about what was happening. It was estimated to have the largest listenership of any programme in the country". Similarly, his diocesan weekly paper Orientación carried lists of cases of torture and repression every week.

Romero preached that "“The most profound social revolution is the serious, supernatural, interior reform of a Christian.” He also emphasized: "The liberation of Christ and of His Church is not reduced to the dimension of a purely temporal project. It does not reduce its objectives to an anthropocentric perspective: to a material well-being or to initiatives of a political or social, economic or cultural order, only. Much less can it be a liberation that supports or is supported by violence.”

Romero was a strong advocate of the spiritual charism of Opus Dei. He received weekly spiritual direction from a priest of Opus Dei. In 1975 he wrote in support of the cause of canonization of Opus Dei's founder, "Personally, I owe deep gratitude to the priests involved with the Work, to whom I have entrusted with much satisfaction the spiritual direction of my own life and that of other priests."

Romero spent the day of 24 March 1980 in a recollection organized by Opus Dei, a monthly gathering of priest friends led by Msgr. Fernando Sáenz Lacalle. On that day they reflected on the priesthood. That evening, Romero was fatally shot while celebrating Mass at a small chapel located in a hospital called "La Divina Providencia", one day after a sermon in which he had called on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians, to obey God's higher order and to stop carrying out the government's repression and violations of basic human rights. As soon as he finished his sermon, Romero proceeded to the middle of the altar and at that moment was shot.

In 2013, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stated that the Vatican doctrinal office has been "given the greenlight" to pursue sainthood for Romero.

In 2014, Gregorio Rosa Chavez, auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, said that the canonization process is in its final stages.

On Friday, January 9, 2015, an online news story article by Carol Glatz of Catholic News Service (CNS) stated that on Thursday, January 8, 2015,: "A panel of theologians advising the Vatican's Congregation for Saints' Causes voted unanimously to recognize the late Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero as a martyr, according to the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference." It is a key step in his canonization process. Next, the Cardinals who are voting members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the Roman Curia must vote to recommend to Pope Francis that Archbishop Romero be beatified. A miracle is not required for beatification candidates who the Pope decrees are martyrs to be beatified, as it would normally be otherwise. If he is beatified as a martyr, a miracle will then normally be needed for him to be canonized.[66]

On Tuesday, February 3, 2015, Pope Francis received Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B., Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in a private audience, and authorized the Cardinal to promulgate (officially authorize) Archbishop Romero's decree of martyrdom, meaning it has gained the Congregation's voting members and the Pope's approval. This clears the way for the Pope to later set a date for his beatification.[67]

Basis for canonization

The Congregation for Saints' Causes voted unanimously to recommend Pope Francis recognize Romero as a martyr. "He was killed at the altar. Through him, they wanted to strike the church that flowed from the Second Vatican Council." His assassination "was not caused by motives that were simply political, but by hatred for a faith that, imbued with charity, would not be silent in the face of the injustices that relentlessly and cruelly slaughtered the poor and their defenders."

The reopening of the “long-stalled” canonization of martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador

"Gunned down in 1980 while celebrating Mass, Romero was openly sympathetic to “liberation theologians” and those who fought political repression and injustice.

Wrote David Gibson for Religion News Service: “But the news that Pope Francis, just six weeks on the job, has cleared the way for the long-stalled canonization of [Romero] is a stunner that sends another important signal about the new pope’s priorities.”

Gibson quoted Jesuit theology professor Fr. Harvey Egan: “Sainthood is often as much about politics and image as anything else. It’s not surprising to me that this present pope, being from South America, having the same inclinations as Romero, would unblock the process and say, ‘Push his cause through,’ and I think rightly so.”

Romero championed the poor and human rights during the bloody war in El Salvador. A right-wing death squad gunned him down while he was at the altar. There is a famous black-and-white photo that shows Romero slumped on the floor, surrounded by nuns. Being proliberation had its price.

Although Romero was instantly hailed as a martyr, his cause did not sail smoothly, partly, it is surmised, because then Pope John Paul II and his doctrinal enforcer Josef Cardinal Ratzinger (who would later become Pope Benedict XVI) were not too fond of left-leaning liberation theology.

In the 1980s, here in the Philippines where many militant clergy, religious and Church workers fought against the excesses of martial rule, Romero was an icon. He was an inspiration to priests, nuns and bishops who strode the fine line. And then the name Romero seemed to have vanished in the Church firmament.

The good news is that two weeks ago, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, a Vatican official who is in charge of Romero’s cause, announced that he and the Pope had met on the matter and that Romero’s case was now “unblocked.” In other words, proceed.

Martyrdom, in Church parlance, means dying for one’s faith and not for some ideological or political reasons. Martyrdom can be a fast path to beatification (the process before canonization). The usual requirements can be waived and only one miracle—instead of two—is required for sainthood."

(http://opinion.inquirer.net/51821/sainthood-for-archbishop-oscar-romero#ixzz2S6lUHa31)

Oscar Romero and St. Josemaria

We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs. We must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat, among the poor newsboys who will sleep covered with newspapers in doorways.   --Archbishop Oscar Romero, December 24, 1979

Pope Francis has recently expressed interest in expediting Archbishop Oscar Romero's canonization. We offer some facts about Romero's dealings with St. Josemaria and Opus Dei.

Recently a number of news stories have spoken of Pope Francis' interest in moving forward the cause of canonization of Oscar Romero, who was assassinated on March 24, 1980 while saying Mass.

Oscar Romero was Archibishop of San Salvador from 1977-1980. He met the founder of Opus Dei in 1970 in Rome. In 1975, after the death of St. Josemaría, he wrote a letter to Pope Paul VI asking for the beatification and canonization of Msgr. Escrivá.

In this letter he said that he was grateful for having known Msgr. Escrivá personally “and for having received from him encouragement and strength to be faithful to the unchangeable doctrine of Christ and to serve the Holy Roman Church with apostolic zeal.

"Msgr. Escrivá’s life was marked by a continuous dialogue with God and a deep humility. One could see that he was a man of God and that he dealt with people with great refinement, affection and good humor. For many years I have been acquainted with the activity of the Work here in El Salvador and can give witness to the supernatural spirit that animates it and the faithfulness to the Magisterium that characterizes it.

"Personally, I owe deep gratitude to the priests involved with the Work, to whom I have entrusted with much satisfaction the spiritual direction of my own life and that of other priests.

"People from all social classes find in Opus Dei a secure orientation for living as children of God in the midst of their daily family and social obligations. And this is doubtless due to the life and teaching of its founder."

Archbishop Romero’s cordial relations with Opus Dei continued right up to the day of his death. Fernando Sáenz, who eventually succeeded him as Archbishop of San Salvador, says that after writing this letter, Archbishop Romero took advantage of being in Rome to pray before the founder’s tomb, and became visibly moved. “His spirituality, in some sense, was nourished by the spirituality of Josemaría Escrivá. He read The Way frequently.”

In his September 6, 1979 Diary entry, Archbishop Romero says that Opus Dei “carries out a silent work of deep spirituality among professional people, university students and laborers…I think this is a mine of wealth for our Church—the holiness of the laity in their own profession.”  

The day he was assassinated, Archbishop Romero spent the morning with Fernando Sáenz at a recollection for priests organized by Opus Dei. Afterwards the Spanish priest accompanied Romero to the church where he was to celebrate Mass. Sáenz recalls: “They killed him during the offering of the bread and wine. It was, as it were, a marvelous external sign of his having offered his life for his people, for the poor, for justice, for peace.”

(http://www.opusdei.org.in/art.php?p=53191)