St. Oscar Romero

Today I will share the story of one of our most recently canonized Saints while continuing featuring Saints from many parts of the world. Many of you may be familiar with the story of St. Oscar Romero. Some of you were alive at the time of his martyrdom and may have even followed the news reports at the time.

Oscar was born in 1917 in El Salvador. He was one of eight children. The local public school only went up to third grade, so after that he was privately tutored until the age thirteen while also being trained in carpentry by his father. His father wanted him to learn a trade because in El Salvador, studies seldom led to employment. The boy, however, wanted to study for the priesthood and entered minor seminary at the age of 13. He continued his studies at the national seminary in San Salvador and then at the Gregorian University in Rome, where he was ordained in 1942. As a priest, he served as a parish priest, promoted various apostolic groups, helped in the construction of San Miguel's cathedral, promoted devotion to Our Lady of Peace and served as rector of the inter-diocesan seminary in San Salvador.

In 1970, Oscar Romero was appointed as Auxiliary Bishop of San Salvador; in 1974 he was appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Santiago de María, a poor, rural region; and in 1977 he was appointed as Archbishop of San Salvador. He was seen as a social conservative at the time of his appointment, which was a disappointment to many in the Church who were openly supportive of Marxist ideology and liberation theology. Shortly after assuming this office, a Jesuit priest and personal friend of Romero's was assassinated. The priest had been creating self reliance groups among the poor. His death profoundly impacted 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.'" He revealed an activism that had not been evident earlier, speaking out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture.

On 23 March 1980, Romero delivered a sermon in which 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. The next day, while celebrating Mass at a church run hospital, Oscar Romero was shot through the heart by a gunman standing in the street outside. To this day, no one has been convicted of this crime.

Oscar Romero was canonized on October 14, 2018 - his feast day is March 24.