Oscar Romero was a relatively conservative priest in the Catholic Church in El Salvador. The church appointed him to serve as Archbishop of San Salvador, which pleased the wealthy class but worried greatly the more progressive priests who worked with and alongside the Salvadoran poor.
However, in March of 1977, shortly after he was appointed to this post, a Jesuit priest and friend of Romero's, was assassinated. This priest, Rutilio Grande, had been working with the poor there and his death had a great impact upon Romero. Romero later said, "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.'"
This was the beginning of a turning point in Romero's life. Much to the surprise of conservative and progressive Catholics, Romero became a voice for and with the poor in El Salvador, a voice against the violence by the US-supported military in the nation.
For three years, Romero worked and spoke more direct with and for the poor, spoke out more directly against the violence and oppression of the poor by the nation.
On March 23, 1980 (I would have been celebrating my 17th birthday), Romero delivered a sermon where he called upon Salvadoran soldiers to forsake the violence against the poor, and to follow in God's ways, instead.
The next day, while he was conducting mass at a hospital, Romero finished his sermon, took a few steps away from the podium and was gunned down.
As far as I know, no one has ever been found guilty of the assassination, but it was apparently orchestrated by the (again, US-supported) Salvadoran military.
Oscar Romero, presente.
Some of Romero's words.
"A church that doesn't provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed — what gospel is that?"
"When the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to and perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises."
"I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from the management of the country, repression. All this is what constitutes the primal cause, from which the rest flows naturally."
"Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the epithets they put on us, we know we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down."
“When we struggle for human rights, for freedom, for dignity, when we feel that it is a ministry of the church to concern itself for those who are hungry, for those who have no schools, for those who are deprived, we are not departing from God’s promise. He comes to free us from sin, and the church knows that sin’s consequences are all such injustices and abuses. The church knows it is saving the world when it undertakes to speak also of such things.”
"Aspire not to have more, but to be more."
