The Death Of The Archbishop

In 1977, San Salvador welcomed a new archbishop, Oscar Arnulfo Romero. Three years later, the archbishop was killed by a single bullet shot from the backseat of a car parked outside the chapel where he was celebrating Mass. Romero, having received countless death threats, no longer allowed concelebrating priests or altar servers to accompany him in the sanctuary. He did not want the bullet meant for him to kill someone else accidentally.

Chapel where Archbishop Romero was murdered while celebrating Mass

During the times of Oscar Romero, Catholics gathering for a Bible study were considered subversive since the catechists were teaching peasants how to read and write. Any criticism of the ruling party earned one a death sentence. In its attempt to fight communist guerrillas that were present in El Salvador, the government killed over 70,000 innocent civilians including hundreds of priests, sisters (including four American church women, three of them nuns) and thousands of catechists. The murder by right-wing government forces of his good friend Father Rutilio Grande marked an awakening in Archbishop Romero. The government’s unwillingness to investigate the murder caused Romero to speak against the injustices committed by the country’s rulers. His desire to uphold the equality of all before God regardless of social status was not appreciated by the powerful.

Archbishop Romero’s tomb at the cathedral of San Salvador

The day before he was martyred for hatred of the faith, Archbishop Romero made an emotional plea to the men of the army, National Guard, police and military. During his Sunday homily at the cathedral he said, “you are killing your own brother peasants when any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God which says, ‘thou shalt not kill.’ No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God…. It is time you… obeyed your consciences rather than a sinful order. The Church, the defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, of the person, cannot remain silent before such an abomination. In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression.” The reaction was applause.

With these words Romero had crossed a line. For the government, he was calling for insubordination. For him, he was proclaiming the Gospel. In the same way Jesus Christ did not intend to enter politics but was executed with the political charge of “king of the Jews,” Archbishop Romero, who did not intend to enter politics, was accused of politicking while he was simply proclaiming the Gospel.

Romero’s enemies accused him of ascribing to liberation theology, yet the liberation Romero preached is the freedom enjoyed by the children of God, “a liberation that has, above all else, respect for the dignity of the person, hope for humanity’s common good, and the transcendence that looks before all to God and only from God derives its hope and its strength.” Beatified this last May 23rd in San Salvador, Romero certainly died a martyr. He was killed by fellow Catholics who did not want to be challenged by the Gospel and preferred to silence him. They may have silenced him, but his prophetic voice has persevered and Blessed Romero, in the words of Saint John Paul II, now “belongs to the Church.”

Written for The Southern Cross