Archbishop Romero Beatified as a Martyr and Hero of the Poor

The following comes from John Allen at Crux:

In a Saturday ceremony believed to mark the largest religious gathering in the history of Central America, the late Archbishop Oscar Romero, killed in 1980 for defending the poor and victims of human rights abuses in El Salvador, was declared a “blessed” of the Catholic Church.

Beatification is the final stage before sainthood. Romero was beatified as a martyr, meaning someone who died giving witness to the Catholic faith, following a decree recognizing him as martyr issued by Pope Francis last February.

The crowd gathered in a downtown San Salvador plaza for the beatification Mass was estimated to be at least 300,000, including scores of pilgrims from outside the country. The crowd included roughly 300 bishops from around the world and nine heads of state, all from Latin America.

“The memory of Romero is still alive and giving comfort to the poor and marginalized,” said Italian Cardinal Angelo Amato, head of the Vatican department for sainthood causes, who celebrated the beatification Mass.

“He was the light of the world and the salt of the earth,” Amato said. “His persecutors have disappeared and been forgotten, but Romero continues to shine a light over the poor and marginalized of the earth.”

Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope, sent a personal message to the beatification ceremony.

“In times of difficult coexistence, Romero knew how to lead, defend, and protect his flock,” the pope wrote.

“We thank God because he gave this bishop and martyr the ability to see and hear the suffering of his people,” Francis said. “When it is fully understood, faith in Jesus Christ generates communities of workers of peace and solidarity.”

Amato read the pope’s letter aloud at the beginning of the Vatican ceremony.

US President Barack Obama issued a statement on the beatification, saying he was “grateful to Pope Francis for his leadership in reminding us of our obligation to help those most in need, and for his decision to beatify Blessed Oscar Arnulfo [Romero].”

“Let us hope that Archbishop Romero’s vision can inspire all of us to respect the dignity of all human beings, and to work for justice and peace in our hemisphere and beyond,” Obama said.

Named the archbishop of San Salvador in 1977, Romero quickly became the country’s most outspoken opponent of a U.S.-backed right-wing government with strong ties to the military.

Romero’s final public act, the day before his death, was to beg, even order, soldiers and security forces not to fire upon civilians protesting government policies. The next day, he was shot through the heart while saying Mass in a small chapel on the grounds of a Catholic hospital, which also contained the modest house where he lived.

Read the rest here.

The "Martyrs' Project": Blessed Oscar Romero

The Martyrs' Project is the idea of the singer Deacon Michael Glen Bell, and film maker Owen Thomas. The Project is the subject of a three part podcast by Bishop Christopher Coyne of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis which you may link to here:

THE PROJECT: Martyrs Prayers is an extraordinary endeavor born out of love - love for the Church, love for music and, perhaps most importantly, love for friends. As a musical and spiritual milestone, the album represents an event that has drawn together luminaries of the music world in order to honor those who, through the centuries, gave their very lives for their faith, their freedoms, their communities and their friends. 

More than a single event, however, the album represents a diverse community of artists bound together by the very faith articulated on the album tracks and by their friendship and love for one another. The artists' diversity is wide -- Roman Catholics and Evangelicals, Methodists and Anglicans, those of varied political persuasions -- all bound together by their friendship and their common desire to honor the martyrs.

The album, however, is more than fantastic music. It is packaged with a wealth of information in liner notes, biographies and resource materials. It is a call to know the past and transform the present; to find purpose in life from the question asked of us all:

"WHAT WOULD YOU DIE FOR?" 

The Story of Archbishop Oscar Romero

(Vatican Radio) Something is happening in El Salvador on the 23rd of May. Not just the usual rampant violence in this nation which has one of the world’s highest murder rates. But a celebration for this majority Christian nation: the beatification ceremony of one of its sons, Archbishop Oscar Romero.

The ceremony was arranged following a decree approved by Pope Francis on the 3rd of February in which he declared the Salvadoran Archbishop  a martyr. 

Like many of his fellow countrymen Romero was a victim of violence and was shot at while celebrating mass on the 24th of March 1980. So during the civil war that lasted from 1979 until 1992 and left over 70, 000 people dead.  

El Salvador which in Spanish means ‘the Saviour’ may be a tiny country on the mainland of the Americas but Oscar Romero’s saintly reputation as the martyr who loved the poor has spread well beyond its borders. And he's viewed by many as a giant figure for whom the Gospel message always came first.

But if you wish to find out more about the figure of this new Blessed stay tuned and find out more in a programme written and produced by Jill Bevilacqua and produced by Sean-Patrick Lovett. A programme which is part of the series ‘Witness’.

Priests called to emulate Blessed Oscar Romero

The Martyrdom of Archbishop Romero

Pope Francis recognizes martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero

(CNA/EWTN News) Pope Francis on Tuesday authorized the promulgation of decrees recognizing the martyrdom of Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero, paving the way for his beatification, as well as the martyrdom of three priests in Peru.

The decision was the fruit of a Feb. 3 audience between the Pope and Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The theologians of the congregation for saints had unanimously recognized Archbishop Romero's 1980 assassination as a martyrdom on Jan. 8.

The Pope's approval was the last step needed before Archbishop Romero could be beatified.

Oscar Romero y Galdamez was Archbishop of San Salvador from 1977 until March 24, 1980, when he was shot while saying Mass. He was a vocal critic of the human rights abuses of the repressive Salvadoran government, and he spoke out on behalf of the poor and the victims of the government.

No one has been prosecuted for his assassination, but right-wing death squads are suspected.

Archbishop Romero's cause of canonization was opened in 1993, but was reportedly held up in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2000 to 2005; as part of the inquiry in a cause of sainthood, the doctrinal dicastery is charged with reviewing the subject's writings to ensure they are free of error.

Pope Francis also recognized the martyrdoms of Fr. Michal Tomaszek and Fr. Zbigniew Strazalkowski, both of whom were Conventual Fransicans; and of Fr. Alessandro Dordi, an Italian diocesan priest.

All three were martyred in Peru in 1991 by Shining Path, a Maoist guerilla insurgency officially known at the Communist Party of Peru.

The heroic virtues of Fr. Giovanni Bacile, an Italian priest who died in 1941, were also recognized.

Both Pope Francis and Benedict XVI hold Archbishop Romero in high regard.

En route to Brazil on May 9, 2007, Benedict told journalists that the Salvadoran “was certainly an important witness of the faith, a man of great Christian virtue who worked for peace and against the dictatorship, and was assassinated while celebrating Mass. Consequently, his death was truly 'credible', a witness of faith.”

During his Jan. 7 General Audience address, Pope Francis quoted Archbishop Romero's saying that mothers experience a “martyrdom of motherhood,” and went on to quote extensively from one of the archbishop's homilies, for the funeral of a priest assassinated by death squads.

And while on his flight to South Korea on Aug. 18, 2014, Pope Francis said it is “very important” to “quickly” move forward Archbishop Romero's cause, adding that “for me Romero is a man of God, but the process has to be followed, and the Lord too has to give his sign... If he wants to do it, he will do it.”

Archbishop Oscar Romero moves closer to Beatification

The following comes from the Prensa Latina:

The canonization process of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, murdered on March 24th, 1980 while celebrating a mass, is in its final stage, said Gregorio Rosa Chavez, auxiliary bishop of San Salvador.
During the Sunday sermon at the Catedral Metropolitana and later during a press conference, Msgr. Rosa said that Pope Francis is optimistic about the canonization progress.

Rosa Chavez said that the delegation of Salvadorian bishops, led by archbishop of the capital city, Jose Luis Alas, held a private meeting with the pope in the Vatican last Friday and received good news about the process, which was the main subject of the meting.

He said that they handed a letter to Pope Francis, signed by all Salvadorian bishops regarding Msgr. Romero, who was killed for defending the poor of El Salvador.

On May 12th, 1994, the Archdiocese of San Salvador asked permission from the Holy See to begin the diocesan process that concluded in 1995.

The file was sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in the Vatican City, however the process remained blocked until April 22nd, 2013, when Pope Francis resumed it.