Oscar Arnulfo Romero carried the aura of a man propelled to do what he knew he must do – speak out for the poor with no voice in El Salvador.
He knew what was waiting – a death squad, sanctioned by the powerful, and it got him less than a year later. This humble man was canonized by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday. A large contingent of Salvadorians, some wearing peasant garb in honor, was there. The Pope was wearing the bloodied vestment the archbishop was wearing in March of 1980, when the death squad got him – while he was saying Mass. I met him twice in Mexico in 1979 when I was covering religion. I have written about those meetings on this site: https://www.georgevecsey.com/home/i-once-met-a-potential-saint-archbishop-romero In recent weeks, my friend Gene Palumbo, whom I also met that month in Mexico, wrote a piece about the ongoing analysis of Archbishop Romero's journey from a cautious priest serving the church into a committed bishop serving the people as well. There are different versions of how he changed -- including a film with apparent "creativity" on serious issues. Gene explores some of the differences in his article in the National Catholic Reporter. https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/archbishop-scar-romero-setting-record-straight It is clear that Romero understood what had changed in his life. In a documentary, he is heard saying: "I don't think there has been a substantial change," he said in the interview. "It is more of an evolution in accordance with the circumstances. My goal as a priest has always been to be faithful to the vocation, to the service of the church and the people." As the years go on, I feel more connected to Archbishop Romero. I also feel that I met the four American women, three nuns and a lay worker, who were murdered in December of 1980 in Salvador. I know I met four very dedicated American women based in Salvador during that same Catholic conference in Mexico in March of 1979, but I cannot verify their identities. https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/03/world/4-salvadorans-say-they-killed-us-nuns-on-orders-of-military.html Archbishop Romero is being honored by his church for doing work that was suspect in his time – empowering the poor and underprivileged. During that conference in 1979, I heard top American prelates scorning the Liberation Theology behind community-building among the poor. The death squads in Salvador could not have missed the contempt from the hierarchy. It never ends. The other day, an expatriated Saudi dissident walked into the Saudi consulate in Turkey to update his passport and never left, at least in one piece, in an episode out of “The Sopranos,” undoubtedly ordered at the top of the command chain. It never ends. With great respect for the life, and death, of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero.
Gene Palumbo
10/15/2018 03:26:51 am
George wrote, "Oscar Arnulfo Romero carried the aura of a man propelled to do what he knew he must do – speak out for the poor with no voice in El Salvador. He knew what was waiting – a death squad, sanctioned by the powerful . . ."
bruce
10/17/2018 04:20:02 am
gene,
bruce
10/16/2018 06:43:03 pm
george,
George Vecsey
10/16/2018 07:47:24 pm
Bruce, well, it was the gloomy end of the Carter regime when they were killed (Dec, 80) and I don't remember that govt criticizing them, but I know many US Catholic bishops were suspicious of those lefty troublemakers like priests and nuns. I covered those guys.
bruce
10/17/2018 04:13:45 am
george,
Gene Palumbo
10/17/2018 03:09:14 am
George,
Gene Palumbo
10/17/2018 04:11:28 am
George wrote, "I don't remember [the Carter] govt criticizing them." It was a different story under President Reagan, who took office less than two months after the churchwomen were killed. Referring to the women, Reagan's U.N. ambassador, Jeane Kirkpatrick, said, "The nuns were not just nuns; the nuns were political activists. . . . "I don't think the government (of El Salvador) was responsible (for their deaths)." 10/18/2018 11:33:33 am
Our government has a long, sad history of meddling in the affairs of other nations. Sadly, George Washington’s advice to stay out of foreign involvements was very quickly ignored.
bruce
10/18/2018 11:41:17 am
alan,
bruce
10/18/2018 11:45:51 am
alan,
Gene Palumbo
10/18/2018 02:31:26 pm
Hi, Alan,
George Vecsey
10/18/2018 04:31:34 pm
Kinzer was in Mexico same time Gene and I met. He's had a great career.
bruce
10/18/2018 05:34:16 pm
george,
Gene Palumbo
10/19/2018 01:37:44 am
George wrote that when he met Bill Ford, brother of Maryknoll Sister Ita Ford, "he didn't bring up the scoundrels demeaning the dedication of his sister and the others." He did bring them up on another occasion: “Gradually there intruded upon the sense of personal tragedy the surrounding facts, and it was like a growing horrible realization that we were supporting a government, that government had killed my sister, and my government didn’t care.”
Brian Savin
10/19/2018 09:58:39 pm
This piece, considered along side our serious immigration issues (created mostly in my view by our own dysfunctional political situation), makes me reconsider an old question left for dead: Is "colonialism" a terrible thing? If conditions in San Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, etc. are so intolerable for their people, and consequentially disruptive to our overwhelmed border population, should the United States consider imposing a colonial rule in the mutual interests of all our populations? I'm curious what this crowd thinks of that proposition and whether it might be workable and mutually beneficial under certain conditions.
bruce
10/20/2018 03:25:21 am
brian, Comments are closed.
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