The pilgrimage was suspended to Ciudad Barrios in San Miguel, the birthplace of St. Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the first saint of El Salvador, for the second time in a row because of Covid-19, reported Fides News Agency.
This year, August 15th marked the 104th anniversary of his birth and the Bishops’ Conference of El Salvador celebrated a thanksgiving Eucharist, presided over by Monsignor José Luis Escobar Alas, Archbishop of San Salvador.
Referring to the current socio-political situation in the Central American country, the prelate, in the invitation to commemorate St. Oscar Arnulfo Romero, urged the Salvadorans to “live the values for which the martyr fought … so that the country can find a way of common good, progress, freedom, justice, truth, charity and live in an authentic democracy”.
The prelate also recalled that the entire population asked Saint Romero to intercede for the end of the pandemic, in order to “live free from this disease which has caused so much suffering and grief to so many families”.
On March 24, 1980, in El Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Romero was murdered while celebrating Mass. Recognizing him as “a martyr for the faith”, Pope Francis canonized him in 2018.
When Oscar Romero was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977, his country was broken. Many people in El Salvador were living in poverty, while an elite group manipulated all political and economic power. Death squads ensured things stayed that way, recalled Vatican News in a 2018 article.
Just three weeks after becoming Archbishop, Romero’s good friend, Jesuit Father Rutilio Grande, was murdered by one of those death squads. Another five priests would be assassinated in the Archdiocese of San Salvador during the three years Romero was Pastor.
When a military junta seized power in 1979, Archbishop Romero began broadcasting weekly sermons over the radio. He openly criticized the regime and those supporting it, denouncing cases of abduction, torture, and mass murder.
That is when he became known as “The voice of those without voice”.
In 1980, social tensions erupted into a civil war that lasted twelve years and left more than 75,000 people dead. Archbishop Romero set up pastoral programs to assist the victims of oppression. At the same time, he became even more outspoken, condemning human rights violations, and defending the preferential option for the poor.
Archbishop Romero appealed desperately to the Salvadoran military to stop killing their own people. “No soldier is obliged to obey an order that goes against the law of God”, he said. “I beseech you. I beg you. I command you! In the name of God: ‘Cease the repression!’”
It was his last radio broadcast.
At 6.30 pm, on Monday, March 24, 1980, the Archbishop of San Salvador was celebrating Mass in the chapel of the Divine Providence Hospital. A car pulled up outside, and a single gunman fired a single shot from the doorway straight into Oscar Romero’s heart.
Moments earlier, the Archbishop had been speaking about how “Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ, will live like the grain of wheat that dies…”.
Recognized as “a martyr for the faith”, he was beatified on May 23, 2015, in San Salvador.
On October 14, 2018, in St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis proclaimed Oscar Arnulfo Romero a saint. For the occasion, the Pope chose to wear the same blood-stained belt that Romero was wearing at the altar when he died.
