Among those commemorated in new statues on the west front of Westminster Abbey
"I am bound, as a pastor, by divine command to give my life for those whom
I love, and that is all Salvadoreans, even those who are going to kill me."
These words appeared in a newspaper just two weeks before Archbishop Romero was
shot while celebrating Holy Communion in the hospital which had been his home
since his enthronement in 1977. Quiet, unassuming, conservative in temperament
and regarded by the church as safely orthodox, he was an unlikely martyr for the
cause of liberation. Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Goldamez was born (1917) in the town
of Cindad Barrios, in the mountains of El Salvador near the border with
Honduras. Leaving school at twelve he began an apprenticeship as a carpenter,
showing promise as a craftsman, but soon thought about ordination, although his
family were not keen. He trained at San Miguel and San Salvador, before
completing his theological studies in Rome. Because of the war in Europe there
was no member of his family at his ordination in 1942. Returning to San Salvador
in 1944, he served as a country priest before taking charge of two seminaries.
In 1966 he became secretary to the El Salvador Bishop’s Conference - a post he
held for 23 years. He earned a reputation as an energetic administrator and his
inspirational sermons were broadcast across the city of San Miguel by five radio
stations. Oscar became bishop in 1970, serving first as assistant to the aged
Archbishop of San Salvador and from 1974 as Bishop of Santiago de Maria. Within
three years he was Archbishop of San Salvador. At that time there was growing
unrest in the country, as many became more aware of the great social injustices
of the peasant economy. Nearly 40% of the land was owned by a tiny percentage of
the population - "a nucleus of families who don’t care about the
people… To maintain and increase their margin of profit they repress the
people". The majority of ordinary people led impoverished and insecure
lives. Groups of Christians formed to engage in study, worship and group
discussion, aiming to follow the gospels and their implications for society.
These ‘Basic Communities’ each had their own priest, and a leader elected
from among the group. The landowners were alarmed at the sight of uneducated
peasants choosing their own spokesmen and concerning themselves with social
issues in the name of Christianity. Virulent press campaigns were conducted
against them, with accusations of Marxism. Right-wing gangs emerged to carry out
active persecution and killings. Men and women just vanished without trace or
reason. Death squads roamed the countryside and soldiers attacked any protesters
in the square of the capital. Romero protested at the killing of men and women
who had "taken to the streets in orderly fashion to petition for justice
and liberty". There were, of course, those who sought change through
violence, seizing land and giving landowners cause to react, but Oscar Romero
condemned all forms of what he called ‘the mysticism of violence’. One
priest, Fr. Rutilio Grande, was particularly outspoken in denouncing the
injustices against the 30,000 peasants working thirty-five sugar-cane farms in
his area. Archbishop Romero defended Fr. Grande against official criticism:
"The government should not consider a priest who takes a stand for social
justice, as a politician, or a subversive element, when he is fulfilling his
mission in the politics of the common good". In March 1977, Fr. Grande and
two companions were murdered. Archbishop Romero was summoned to view the bodies
- a hint of what happens to meddlesome priests. This and the lack of any
official enquiry convinced him that the government employed - or at least
supported - people who killed for political convenience. He responded by
prohibiting the celebration of Mass anywhere in the country on the following
Sunday except at his own Cathedral, a celebration to which all the faithful were
invited - and came - overflowing in their thousands into the plaza outside. The
event served to unite the faithful and remove any doubts about Romero’s
commitment to justice. The government of course was furious, even more so as the
church began to document civil rights abuses and seek the truth in a country
governed by lies. Visiting the Pope in 1979, Archbishop Romero presented him
with seven dossiers filled with reports and documents describing injustices in
El Salvador. Less than a year later he was killed. In the sermon just minutes
before his death, Archbishop Romero reminded his congregation of the parable of
the wheat. "Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of
Christ, will live like the grains of wheat that dies. It only apparently dies.
If it were not to die, it would remain a solitary grain. The harvest comes
because of the grain that dies… We know that every effort to improve society,
above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God
blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us". He gladly accepted what
he knew would happen.