Slain Salvador Archbishop Romero to be a saint, pope decrees

[Judi Lynn]

Nicole Winfield, Associated Press
Updated 3:30 pm, Wednesday, March 7, 2018

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has cleared the way for Archbishop Oscar Romero to be made a saint, declaring that the churchman murdered by El Salvador's right-wing death squads for standing up for the poor and oppressed should be a model for today's church.

Francis signed a decree confirming a miracle attributed to Romero's intercession on Tuesday, the same day he approved a miracle for another important figure for the 20th century Catholic Church, Pope Paul VI, the Vatican said Wednesday.

No date was set for either canonization. Vatican officials have previously said Paul VI would likely be canonized in October, during a big Vatican meeting of bishops.

The Vatican official who spearheaded Romero's sainthood cause, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, said he hoped the two would be declared saints together in October, saying a joint canonization would give Catholics a "burst" of energy and example of the need to live one's life for others.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Pope-approves-sainthood-for-slain-Salvador-12734335.php

[Judi Lynn]

1. Oscar Romero loved the people so much he continued when he knew the state would kill him.

Archbishop Óscar Romero



Younger Óscar Romero.


Archbishop Oscar Romero
The Last Sermon (1980)



Let no one be offended because we use the divine words read at our mass to shed light on the social, political and economic situation of our people. Not to do so would be unchristian. Christ desires to unite himself with humanity, so that the light he brings from God might become life for nations and individuals.

. . .

The spokesman of Amnesty International said that the victims' bodies characteristically appeared with the thumbs tied behind their backs. Corrosive liquids had been applied to the corpses to prevent identification of the victims by their relatives and to prevent international condemnation, the spokesman added. Nevertheless, the bodies were exhumed and the dead have been identified. Fuentes said that the repression carried out by the Salvadorean army was aimed at breaking the popular organizations through the assassination of their leaders in both town and country.

According to the spokesman of Amnesty International, at least three thousand five hundred peasants have fled from their homes to the capital to escape persecution. "We have complete lists in London and Sweden of young children and women who have been assassinated for being organized," Fuentes stated....

I would like to make a special appeal to the men of the army, and specifically to the ranks of the National Guard, the police and the military. Brothers, you come from our own people. You are killing your own brother peasants when any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God which says, "Thou shalt not kill." No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you recovered your consciences and obeyed your consciences rather than a sinful order. The church, the defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, of the person, cannot remain silent before such an abomination. We want the government to face the fact that reforms are valueless if they are to be carried out at the cost of so much blood. In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Human%20Rights%20Documents/Archbishop_Romero.html


~ ~ ~

Remembering Those Murdered At Oscar Romero’s Funeral
Dozens of poor El Salvadorans were killed during the bishop’s funeral thirty five years ago.
By Greg Grandin
MARCH 25, 2015


. . .

As one of the concelebrating priests, I had been inside the cathedral from the start. Now I watched the terrified mob push through the doors until every inch of space was filled. Looking about me, I suddenly realized that, aside from the nuns, priests and bishops, the mourners were the poor and the powerless of EI Salvador. Absent were government representatives of the nation or of other countries. The ceremony had begun at 11 am and it was now after noon. For the next hour and a half or two, we found ourselves tightly packed into the cathedral, some huddled under the pews, others clutching one another in fright, still others praying silently or aloud.

The bomb explosions grew closer and more frequent until the cathedral began to shudder. Would the whole edifice collapse? Or would a machine-gunner appear in a doorway to strafe the crowd? A little peasant girl named Reina, dressed up in her brown-and-white checked Sunday dress, clung to me in desperation and pleaded, “Padre.”

We lived through that horror of bombs, bullets and panic, now dead bodies were being carried into the cathedral from outside, for nearly two hours. At certain moments one could not help wondering if we would all be killed…. Eventually, the bombing and shooting subsided. The papal nuncio to El Salvador received assurance by phone from some government source that it was safe for the people to leave the cathedral. Gradually, we filed out into the street with hands raised high above our heads, according to instructions, so as to assure any potential snipers that we were unarmed.

Later in the afternoon, back at the Jesuit residence where I was staying, we listened by radio to the government’s official account of the incident. The entire affair, the statement explained, was the work of leftist terrorists. Our own experience had given us, of course, a different picture…. All of us knew full well that we had not been held captive in the cathedral by leftist terrorists, as the official version had it, nor had any leftists attempted to make off with the archbishop’s body.

https://www.thenation.com/article/remembering-those-murdered-oscar-romeros-funeral/


YouTube, graphic:

Massacre in El Salvador during Oscar Romero's funeral

[GaryCnf]

2. It is easy for some to mock faith

But no one can mock his courage or question his love.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Could not agree with you more, GaryCnf. Thanks for your very welcome comment.

Have never seen something more vicious from a government toward its own people and the courageous man who gave his life trying to protect them.

What a shame it takes justice and the truth so much longer to gain ascendancy in a truly brutal society.

[demosincebirth]

4. True faith brings courage - he had it.