Everything about Scar Romero totally explained
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (
August 15 1917 –
March 24 1980), commonly known as
Monseñor Romero, was a
bishop of the
Roman Catholic Church in
El Salvador. He became the fourth
Archbishop of San Salvador, succeeding
Luis Chávez.
As
archbishop, he witnessed ongoing violations of
human rights and started a group which spoke out on behalf of the
poor and victims of the country's
civil war. In 1980, he was
assassinated by a right-wing group headed by former major
Roberto D'Aubuisson as he held the consecrated host up during a Mass. This provoked international outcry for reform in El Salvador. After his assassination, Romero was succeeded by Msgr.
Arturo Rivera.
In 1997, a cause for
beatification and
canonization into
sainthood was opened for Romero, and
Pope John Paul II bestowed upon him the title of
Servant of God. The process continues. He is considered by some the unofficial
patron saint of the
Americas and
El Salvador and is often referred to as
"San Romero" by the Catholic workers in El Salvador. Outside of Catholicism, Romero is honored by other
religious denominations of
Christendom, including the
Church of England through its
Common Worship. He is one of the ten 20th century martyrs who are depicted in statues above the Great West Door of
Westminster Abbey,
London.
In 2008, he was chosen as one of the 15 Champions of World Democracy by the Europe-based magazine
A Different View.
Childhood
Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was born on
August 15,
1917 to Santos Romero and Guadalupe de Jésus Galdámez in
Ciudad Barrios. On
May 11,
1919, at the age of two, Óscar was baptized into the Catholic Church by a Fr.
Cecilio Morales. Romero had six brothers and sisters: Gustavo, Zaída, Rómulo, Mamerto, Arnoldo and Gaspar.
He could often be found at one of the town's two churches during his free time. At age seven Romero came down with an unknown life threatening illness, from which he eventually recovered.
Romero entered
public school, which only offered grades one through three. When finished with public school, Romero was privately tutored by
Anita Iglesias until age twelve or thirteen. Throughout this time Óscar's father, Santos, had been training Romero in
carpentry. Romero showed exceptional proficiency as an
apprentice. Santos wanted to offer his son the skill of a trade, because in El Salvador studies seldom led to employment.
Seminarian
In 1930 at 13, Oscar Romero entered life in a
Catholic seminary in
San Miguel. He remained there for seven years until 1937 when he left for the national
Jesuit seminary in
San Salvador. There, following his father's death, he studied
theology. Halfway through his first year Romero was sent to
Rome for study at the
Gregorian University. He excelled academically while living with other
Latin American seminarians at the Latin American College.
However by 1939,
World War II had begun
Europe and Italy had officially entered the war. Many of Romero's fellow seminarians chose to return home before the war worsened, but Romero and several others remained. From 1940 to 1941, while
war and uncertainty weighed heavily on his mind, Romero managed to earn his
licentiate degree in theology
cum laude.
Priesthood
On
April 4,
1942, Romero was
ordained a
Catholic priest in
Rome. Romero remained in Rome to obtain doctoral degrees in theology which specialized in
ascetical theology. In 1943 before finishing, he was summoned back home from
Fascist Italy by the bishop at age 26. He traveled home with his good friend Father Valladares, who was also doing doctoral work in
Rome. En route home they made stops in
Spain and
Cuba, being detained by Cuban police for having come from
Mussolini's
Italy and placed in an
internment camp. After several months in prison Valladares became sick and some priests of the
Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer helped to have the two transferred to a hospital. From the hospital they were released from Cuban custody and allowed back home, where they sailed for
Mexico and then back home to El Salvador.
Romero began working as a parish priest in
Anamorós but then moved to San Miguel where he worked for over 20 years. He promoted various
apostolic groups, started an
Alcoholics Anonymous group, helped in the construction of San Miguel's
cathedral and supported
devotion to the
Virgin of the Peace. He was later appointed Rector of the inter-diocese seminary in San Salvador. In 1966, he began his public life when chosen to be the Secretary of the
Episcopal Conference for
El Salvador. He also became the director of the archdiocesan newspaper
"Orientación", which became fairly conservative while he was editor, defending the traditional
magisterium of the Catholic Church.
In 1970 he was appointed
auxiliary bishop to
San Salvador Archbishop
Luis Chávez, a move not welcomed by the more progressive members of the Priesthood in El Salvador. He took up his appointment as
Bishop of the
Diocese of Santiago de María in December 1975.
Archbishop
On
February 23,
1977, he was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador. His appointment was met with surprise, dismay, and even incredulity. While this appointment was welcomed by the government, many priests were disappointed, especially those openly aligning with
Marxism. The Marxist priests feared that his conservative reputation would negatively affect
liberation theology's commitment to the poor.
On
March 12, a progressive
Jesuit priest and personal friend
Rutilio Grande, who had been creating self-reliance groups among the poor
campesinos, 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've killed him for doing what he did, then I too have to walk the same path". Romero urged
Arturo Armando Molina's 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 hadn't been evident earlier. He spoke out against
poverty,
social injustice, assassinations and
torture. As a result, Romero began to be noticed internationally. In February 1980, he was given an honorary doctorate by the
Catholic University of Leuven. On his visit to Europe to receive this honour, 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 El Salvadoran government because it legitimized terror and assassinations.
In 1979, the
Revolutionary Government Junta came to power amidst a wave of human rights abuses by paramilitary right-wing groups and the government. Romero criticized
U.S. 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 repression inflicted on the organized people, whose struggle has often been for their most basic human rights".
(External Link
) Carter, concerned that El Salvador would become "another Nicaragua," ignored Romero's pleas and continued military aid to the Salvadoran government.
Church Persecution
Archbishop Romero denounced what he characterized as the
persecution of his Church:
In less than three years, more than fifty priests have been attacked, threatened and slandered. Six of them are martyrs, having been assassinated; various others have been tortured, and others expelled from the country. Religious women have also been the object of persecution. The archdiocesan radio station, Catholic educational institutions and Christian religious institutions have been constantly attacked, menaced, threatened with bombs. Various parish convents have been sacked. |
Catholic priests assassinated in El Salvador during Óscar Romero's archbishopric (1977 - 1980):
Assassination and funeral
Romero was killed by a shot to the heart on
March 24 1980 while celebrating
Mass at a small
chapel near his
cathedral following a sermon where he 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. According to an audio-recording of the Mass, he was shot moments after the
homily, which he'd concluded with an improvised pre-Eucharistic prayer thanking God (the homily in the
Roman Catholic Rite more or less signifies the end of the
Liturgy of the Word and the beginning of the
Liturgy of the Eucharist or Mass of the Faithful). When he was shot, his blood spilled over the altar.
It is believed that the assassins were members of Salvadoran
death squads. This view was supported in 1993 by an official
U.N. report, which identified the man who ordered the killing as former Major
Roberto D'Aubuisson, He had also planned to overthrow the government in a coup. Later he founded the political party
Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), and organized death squads that systematically carried out politically-motivated assassinations and other human rights abuses in El Salvador. Álvaro Rafael Saravia, a former captain in the Salvadorian Air Force, was chief of security for Roberto D'Aubuisson and an active member of these death squads. In 2004, Mr. Saravia was found liable by a U.S. District Court under the Alien Tort Claims Act ("ATCA") (28 U.S.C. § 1350) for aiding, conspiring, and participating in the assassination of Archbishop Romero. Mr. Saravia was ordered to pay $10 million dollars for extrajudicial killing and crimes against humanity pursuant to the ATCA. Doe v. Rafael Saravia, 348 F. Supp. 2d 1112 (E.D. Cal. 2004) (providing an excellent account of the events leading up, and subsequent, to Archbishop Romero's death).
Romero is buried in the
Metropolitan Cathedral of the Holy Savior (Catedral Metropolitana de San Salvador). The
funeral mass (rite of visitation and requiem) on
March 30 1980, in San Salvador was attended by more than 250,000 mourners from all over the world. Viewing this attendance as a protest,
Jesuit priest
John Dear has said, "Romero’s funeral was the largest demonstration in Salvadoran history, some say in the history of Latin America."
During the ceremony, a bomb exploded on the Cathedral square (Plaza Barrios) and subsequently there were shots fired that probably came from surrounding buildings. While no one died from the bomb-blast or the shots, many people were killed during the following mass panic; official sources talk of 31 overall casualties, journalists indicated between 30 and 50 dead.
Canonization
Spiritual life
Romero noted in his diary on
February 4 1943: "In recent days the Lord has inspired in me a great desire for holiness.... I've been thinking of how far a soul can ascend if it lets itself be possessed entirely by God." Commenting on this passage, James R. Brockman, S.J., Romero's biographer and author of
Romero: A Life, said that "All the evidence available indicates that he continued on his quest for holiness until the end of his life. But he also matured in that quest."
According to Brockman, Romero's spiritual journey had some of these characteristics: (1) love for the Church of Rome, shown by his episcopal motto, "to be of one mind with the church", a phrase he took from
St. Ignatius'
Spiritual Exercises, (2) a tendency to make a very deep
examination of conscience, (3) an emphasis on sincere
piety, (3)
mortification and
penance through his duties, (4) providing protection for his chastity, (5)
spiritual direction (Romero said he "entrusted with great satisfaction the spiritual direction of my life and that of other priests" to priests of Opus Dei), (6) "being one with the church incarnated in this people which stands in need of liberation," (7) eagerness for contemplative type of
prayer and also finding God in others, (8) fidelity to the will of God, (9) self-offering to
Jesus Christ.
Process of canonization
On the tenth anniversary of the assassination, the sitting prelate archbishop of San Salvador, Msgr.
Arturo Rivera, appointed a
postulator to prepare documentation for a cause of beatification and canonization of Romero. The documents were formally accepted by
Pope John Paul II and the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 1997, and Romero was given the title of "
Servant of God". The process continues today with further investigation of the heroism and martyrdom of Romero. Upon the declaration of heroism and martyrdom, it's expected that Romero will achieve the title of "
Venerable." Thereafter,
miracles must be attributed to Romero in order for him to be declared
Blessed and added to the
Liturgy of the Hours.
Twenty-six years after Romero's assassination, the canonization cause is stalled. In March 2005, Monsignor
Vincenzo Paglia, the Vatican official in charge of the drive, announced that Romero's cause had cleared an unprecedented hurdle, having survived a theological audit by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at the time headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later proclaimed
Pope Benedict XVI) and that beatification could follow within six months.
Pope John Paul II died within weeks of those remarks. Predictably, the transition of the new Pontiff slowed down the work of canonizations and beatifications. Pope Benedict XVI additionally instituted liturgical changes that had the overall effect of reining in the Vatican's so-called "factory of saints." Later that year, an October 2005 interview by Cardinal
Jose Saraiva Martins, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, appeared to stall the prospect of an impending Romero beatification. Asked if Msgr. Paglia's predictions checked out, Cardinal Saraiva responded, "Not as far as I know today." In November 2005, a Jesuit magazine signaled that Romero's beatification was still "years away."
Many suspect that the delay in the declaration of heroism and martyrdom is due to the fact that Romero is closely tied to, but not directly involved with, the liberation theology movement espoused especially by the Jesuits of Latin America. The charge has been dismissed by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints who have pointed out that Romero hasn't yet met certain criteria to move on to the next levels of the inquests, processes which have historically taken decades to roll into motion.
Romero in popular culture
Television and film
The film Romero (1989) was based on the Archbishop's life story. It was directed by John Duigan and starred Raúl Juliá and produced by Paulist Productions (a film company run by the Paulist Fathers, an order of Catholic priests). Timed for release ten years after Romero's death, it was the first Hollywood feature film ever to be financed by the Roman Catholic Church. The film received respectful, if less than enthusiastic, reviews. Roger Ebert typified the critics who acknowledged that "[t]he film has a good heart, and the Julia performance is an interesting one, restrained and considered ... The film's weakness is a certain implacable predictability." Although the film depicts Romero's assassination as occurring during the Consecration of the Eucharistic wine, he was actually killed after giving the homily. Also, Romero was never sent to jail as was in the movie, but was held at a detainment camp.
Oliver Stone's 1986 film, Salvador, contains a dramatisation of the assassination of Archbishop Romero (played in the movie by José Carlos Ruiz). The film tells the true story of photojournalist Richard Boyle (James Woods), who undergoes a spiritual conversion while covering the death squad killings in El Salvador during the Civil War.
Romero was also featured in the made-for-TV movie Choices of the Heart (NBC, 1983, René Enríquez as Romero) about the murder of four U.S. churchwomen in El Salvador
Romero was depicted in two biopics about the papacy of Karol Wojtyła, the U.S. television biopic (ABC, 2005, Joaquim de Almeida as Romero) and the Italian biopic "Karol, un papa rimasto uomo" (2006, Carlos Kaniowsky as Romero).
Visual arts
A statue of Oscar Romero sculpted by John Roberts fills a prominent niche on the western facade of Westminster Abbey in London. The statue was unveiled in the presence of Queen Elizabeth in 1998. Barry Woods Johnston sculpted the statue of Oscar Romero displayed in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The Italian sculptor, Paolo Borghi crafted the catafalque that covers Romero's tomb in the crypt of the San Salvador cathedral and shows Romero "sleeping the sleep of the just" as four Evangelists stand guard.
Br. Robert Lentz, OFM, painted a now-famous "icon" of Archbishop Romero based on traditional church iconography but with updated the conventional elements. For example, traditional angels are replaced with military helicopters over red tiled roofs. Frank Diaz Escalet executed a series of "outsider art" paintings on Archbishop Romero, now exhibited in the permanent collection of the Organization of the American States Museum, in Washington, D.C.; the permanent collection of the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas; the Ella Noel Museum of Odessa, Texas; and Maryknoll galleries in New York.
Poetry and song
The most famous reference to Romero's death in Spanish-language songs is "El Padre Antonio y el monaguillo Andrés" ("Father Anthony and Acolyte Andrew"), written and sung by Panamanian Rubén Blades. This song describes the arrival in a Latin American country of an idealistic Spanish priest (a fictional representation of Archbishop Romero), his sermons condemning violence there, his talks about love and justice, and, finally, the murders of the priest and acolyte during a mass. Blades has said he wrote this song so that "the death of Romero isn't forgotten."
Mentioned in the song "Same Thing" by the Flobots
Josh Ritter's song "Harrisburg," from the album, Golden Age of Radio, follows Romero from his ordination to his death.
In 1981, Brazilian classical composer Jorge Antunes wrote a choral-symphonic work entitled "Elegia Violeta para Monsenhor Romero" ("Violet Elegy for Monsignor Romero") using texts from Che Guevara, Vassili Vassilikos, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Psalms, and Archbishop Romero himself as lyrics. The work finishes with the children's choir repeating, each time more strongly, "¡No se mata la justicia!" ("Justice can't be killed!": the very words in which Archbishop Romero replied to a Brazilian reporter's question whether the archbishop were afraid he'd be killed because of his defense of the poor and his protest against the murders of priests) -- until their voices are muted by seemingly panicked, sincopated instrumental sounds.
Brazilian Bishop Dom Pedro Casaldáliga immortalized Romero as "San Romero de América" ("Saint Romero of the Americas") in a famous poem by that name written shortly after the archbishop's assassination. The poem, a variation on the Angelus, popularized the use of the phrase "San Romero" (instead of "Saint Oscar") throughout Latin America (and, for example, in Escalet's "San Romero" paintings or in the "San Romero de America" UCC Church in New York City).
Jolie Rickman's song "Romero" documents the archbishop's last sermon before his assassination. Available on the CD "Sing It Down" via SOA Watch, http://www.soaw.org/new/sub.php?id=2.
Welsh singer-songwriter Dafydd Iwan wrote about Romero's assassination in the song "Oscar Romero".
Richard Gilpin wrote the song "Oscar Romero." It appeared in his album "Loose Ends."
"Oscar Romero" is a character in Elizabeth Swados's musical-theater "Missionaries", which concerns the murder of four churchwomen in El Salvador.
"Eulogy For Oscar Romero" is an instrumental piece composed and performed by Jean-Luc Ponty.Further Information
Get more info on 'Scar Romero'.
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