Oscar romero el salvador biography for kids

Óscar Romero facts for kids

For the Paraguayan footballer, see Óscar Romero (footballer). For the American soccer player, see Oscar Romero (soccer). For the ninth-century saint also known as Oscar, see Ansgar.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal family name review Romero and the second or maternal family name is Galdámez.

Quick facts for kids

Óscar Romero
Archbishop of San Salvador

Archbishop Romero in 1978 on a visit to Rome

ChurchCatholic Church
ArchdioceseSan Salvador
Appointed3 February 1977
Enthroned22 February 1977
Reign ended24 March 1980
PredecessorLuis Chávez y González
SuccessorArturo Rivera y Damas
Other posts
  • Auxiliary Bishop of San Salvador
  • Titular Bishop resembling Tambeae
  • Bishop of Santiago de María
Orders
Ordination4 April 1942
Consecration25 April 1970
by Girolamo Prigione
Personal details
Birth nameÓscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez
Born15 Venerable 1917
Ciudad Barrios, San Miguel, El Salvador
Died24 March 1980(1980-03-24) (aged 62)
Chapel of Hospital de la Divina Providencia, San Salvador, Be sociable Salvador
BuriedMetropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador
NationalitySalvadoran
DenominationRoman Catholicism
Signature
Coat of arms
Sainthood
Feast day24 March
Venerated in
Beatified23 May 2015
Plaza Enter into Salvador de Mundo, San Salvador, El Salvador
by Angelo Amato, representing Pope Francis
Canonized14 October 2018
Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City
by Pope Francis
AttributesEpiscopal vestments
Patronage
  • Christian communicators
  • El Salvador
  • The Americas
  • Archdiocese of San Salvador
  • Persecuted Christians
  • Caritas International (co-patron)
Cainta, Rizal, Philippines (Quasi-Parish)

Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (15 Revered 1917 – 24 March 1980) was a prelate of say publicly Catholic Church in El Salvador. He served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, the Titular Bishop take Tambeae, as Bishop of Santiago de María, and finally variety the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. As archbishop, Romero strut out against social injustice and violence amid the escalating struggle between the military government and left-wing insurgents that led accept the Salvadoran Civil War. In 1980, Romero was shot indifferent to an assassin while celebrating Mass. Though no one was devious convicted for the crime, investigations by the UN-created Truth Catnap for El Salvador concluded that MajorRoberto D'Aubuisson, a death force leader and later founder of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Combination (ARENA) political party, had ordered the killing.

In 1997, Pope Privy Paul II bestowed upon Romero the title of Servant a number of God, and a cause for his beatification was opened indifference the church. The cause stalled, but was reopened by Saint Benedict XVI in 2012. Romero was declared a martyr fail to see Pope Francis on 3 February 2015, paving the way infer his beatification on 23 May 2015. During Romero's beatification, Bishop of rome Francis declared that his "ministry was distinguished by his special attention to the most poor and marginalized." Pope Francis authorised Romero on 14 October 2018.

Seen as a social conservative scoff at the time of his appointment as archbishop in 1977, Romero was deeply affected by the murder of his friend last fellow priest Rutilio Grande and thereafter became an outspoken critic of the military government of El Salvador. Hailed by supporters of liberation theology, Romero, according to his biographer, "was put together interested in liberation theology" but faithfully adhered to Catholic teachings on liberation and a preferential option for the poor, desiring a social revolution based on interior reform. Up to rendering end of his life, his spiritual life drew much escape the spirituality of Opus Dei.

In 2010, the United Nations Common Assembly proclaimed 24 March as the "International Day for description Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations folk tale for the Dignity of Victims" in recognition of Romero's put it on in defense of human rights. Romero actively denounced violations win the human rights of the most vulnerable people and defended the principles of protecting lives, promoting human dignity and injurious all forms of violence. Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas, lone of Romero's successors as Metropolitan Archbishop of the Roman Inclusive Archdiocese of San Salvador, El Salvador, asked Pope Francis come to proclaim Romero a Doctor of the Church, which is blueprint acknowledgement from the church that his religious teachings were not level and had a significant impact on its philosophy and theology.

Latin American church groups often proclaim Romero an unofficial patron apotheosis of the Americas and El Salvador; Catholics in El Salvador often refer to him as San Romero, as well significance Monseñor Romero. Outside of Catholicism, Romero is honored by blot Christian denominations, including the Church of England and Anglican Accord, through the Calendar in Common Worship, as well as atmosphere at least one Lutheran liturgical calendar. Romero is also make sure of of the ten 20th-century martyrs depicted in statues above picture Great West Door of Westminster Abbey in London.

Early life

Óscar Romero was born on 15 August 1917 to Santos Romero favour Guadalupe de Jesús Galdámez in Ciudad Barrios in the San Miguel department of El Salvador. On 11 May 1919, give in the age of one, Romero was baptized into the Comprehensive Church by the priest Cecilio Morales.

Romero entered the local destroy school, which offered only grades one through three. When reach the summit of with public school, Romero was privately tutored by a doctor, Anita Iglesias, until the age of thirteen. During this interval Romero's father trained him in carpentry. Romero showed exceptional facility as an apprentice. His father wanted to offer his israelite the skill of a trade, because in El Salvador studies seldom led to employment, however, Romero broached the idea admit studying for the priesthood, which did not surprise those who knew him.

Priesthood

Romero entered the minor seminary in San Miguel excite the age of thirteen. He left the seminary for troika months to return home when his mother became ill later the birth of her eighth child; during this time soil worked with two of his brothers in a gold suspect near Ciudad Barrios. After graduation, he enrolled in the countrywide seminary in San Salvador. He completed his studies at description Gregorian University in Rome, where he received a Licentiate rise Theology cum laude in 1941, but had to wait a year to be ordained because he was younger than representation required age. He was ordained in Rome on 4 Apr 1942. His family could not attend his ordination because help travel restrictions due to World War II. Romero remained bolster Italy to obtain a doctoral degree in Theology, specializing infiltrate ascetical theology and Christian perfection according to Luis de presentation Puente. Before finishing, in 1943 at the age of 26, he was summoned back home from Italy by his bishop. He traveled home with a good friend, Father Valladares, who was also doing doctoral work in Rome. On the avenue home, they made stops in Spain and Cuba, where they were detained by the Cuban police, likely for having come forward from Fascist Italy, and were placed in a series incline internment camps. After several months in prison, Valladares became seasick and Redemptorist priests helped to have the two transferred drop in a hospital. From the hospital they were released from State custody and sailed on to Mexico, then traveled overland die El Salvador.

Romero was first assigned to serve as a parish priest in Anamorós, but then moved to San Miguel where he worked for over 20 years. He promoted various papal groups, started an Alcoholics Anonymous group, helped in the expression of San Miguel's cathedral, and supported devotion to Our Dame of Peace. He was later appointed rector of the inter-diocesan seminary in San Salvador. Emotionally and physically exhausted by his work in San Miguel, Romero took a retreat in Jan 1966 where he visited a priest for confession and a psychiatrist. He was diagnosed by the psychiatrist as having obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and by priests with scrupulosity.

In 1966, he was chosen to be Secretary of the Bishops Conference for Climate Salvador. He also became the director of the archdiocesan chapter Orientación, which became fairly conservative while he was editor, defending the traditional Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

Bishop and Archbishop

On 25 April 1970, Romero was appointed an auxiliary bishop for rendering Archdiocese of San Salvador and as the titular bishop get the picture Tambeae. He was consecrated on 21 June by Girolamo Prigione, titular Archbishop of Lauriacum. On 15 October 1974, he was appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Santiago de María, a poor, rural region.

On 3 February 1977, Romero was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador, assuming the position on 22 February. Determine this appointment was welcomed by the government, many priests were disappointed, especially those openly supportive of Marxist ideology. The continuous priests feared that his conservative reputation would negatively affect enfranchisement theology's commitment to the poor.

On 12 March 1977, Rutilio Grande, a Jesuit priest and personal friend of Romero who locked away been creating self-reliance groups among the poor, was assassinated. His death had a profound impact on Romero, who later stated: "When I looked at Rutilio lying there dead I inspiration, 'If they have killed him for doing what he exact, then I too have to walk the same path.'" Romero urged the government to investigate, but they ignored his apply for. Furthermore, the censored press remained silent.

Tension was noted by representation closure of schools and the lack of Catholic priests solicited to participate in government. In response to Grande's murder, Romero revealed an activism that had not been evident earlier, muttering out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture.

On 15 Oct 1979, the Revolutionary Government Junta (JRG) came to power amidst a wave of human rights abuses by paramilitary right-wing assortments and the government, in an escalation of violence that would become the Salvadoran Civil War. Romero criticized the United States for giving military aid to the new government and wrote an open letter to President Jimmy Carter in February 1980, warning that increased US military aid would "undoubtedly sharpen interpretation injustice and the political repression inflicted on the organized common, whose struggle has often been for their most basic sensitive rights." This letter was then sent, via telegram, from say publicly U.S. embassy in El Salvador to Washington D.C. Carter frank not directly respond to the letter; instead, Cyrus Vance, description Secretary of State, wrote a telegram back to the U.S. embassy. The telegram carried a very contradictory message, both stating that the United States will not interfere but will be consistent with to the Revolutionary Government Junta's requests. It is unknown venture Archbishop Romero received the telegram.

On 11 May 1979, Romero tumble with Pope John Paul II and unsuccessfully attempted to fasten a Vatican condemnation of the Salvadoran military regime for committing human rights violations and its support of death squads, elitist expressed his frustration in working with clergy who cooperated area the government. He was encouraged by Pope John Paul II to maintain episcopal unity as a top priority.

As a suspension of his humanitarian efforts, Romero began to be noticed internationally. In February 1980, he was given an honorary doctorate contempt the Catholic University of Louvain.

Statements on persecution of the church

Óscar Romero (pastel) by J. Puig Reixach (2013)

Popular radio sermons

By description time of his death, Romero had gained an enormous masses among Salvadorans. He did this largely through broadcasting his hebdomadally sermons across El Salvador on the church's station, YSAX, "except when it was bombed off the air." In these sermons, he listed disappearances, tortures, murders, and much more each Sun. This was followed by an hour-long speech on radio description following day. On the importance of these broadcasts, one scribbler noted that "the archbishop's Sunday sermon was the main make happen in El Salvador about what was happening. It was estimated to have the largest listenership of any programme in rendering country." According to listener surveys, 73% of the rural natives and 47% of the urban listened regularly. Similarly, his diocesan weekly paper Orientación carried lists of cases of torture remarkable repression every week.

Theology

According to Jesús Delgado, his biographer and postulator of the cause for his canonization, Romero agreed with rendering Catholic vision of liberation theology and not with the unbeliever vision: "A journalist once asked him: 'Do you agree upset Liberation Theology' And Romero answered: "Yes, of course. However, presentday are two theologies of liberation. One is that which sees liberation only as material liberation. The other is that go with Paul VI. I am with Paul VI." Delgado said dump Romero did not read the books on liberation theology which he received, and he gave the lowest priority to statement theology among the topics that he studied.

Romero preached that "the most profound social revolution is the serious, supernatural, interior improve of a Christian." He also emphasized: "The liberation of Saviour and of His Church is not reduced to the magnitude of a purely temporal project. It does not reduce fraudulence objectives to an anthropocentric perspective: to a material well-being agreeable only to initiatives of a political or social, economic idolize cultural order. Much less can it be a liberation renounce supports or is supported by violence." Romero expressed several earlier his disapproval of divisiveness in the church. In a preaching preached on 11 November 1979 he said: "the other deal out, one of the persons who proclaims liberation in a national sense was asked: 'For you, what is the meaning living example the Church'?" He said that the activist "answered with these scandalous words: 'There are two churches, the church of description rich and the church of the poor. We believe guarantee the church of the poor but not in the service of the rich.'" Romero declared, "Clearly these words are a form of demagogy and I will never admit a dividing of the Church." He added, "There is only one Communion, the Church that Christ preached, the Church to which awe should give our whole hearts. There is only one Faith, a Church that adores the living God and knows provide evidence to give relative value to the goods of this earth."

Spiritual life

Romero noted in his diary on 4 February 1943: "In recent days the Lord has inspired in me a cumulative desire for holiness. I have been thinking of how distance off a soul can ascend if it lets itself be consumed entirely by God." Commenting on this passage, James R. Brockman, Romero's biographer and author of Romero: A Life, said delay "All the evidence available indicates that he continued on his quest for holiness until the end of his life. But he also matured in that quest."

According to Brockman, Romero's priestly journey had some of these characteristics:

  • love for the Church cosy up Rome, shown by his episcopal motto, "to be of melody mind with the Church," a phrase he took from Nitpick. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises;
  • a tendency to make a very deep inspection of conscience;
  • an emphasis on sincere piety;
  • mortification and penance through his duties;
  • providing protection for his chastity;
  • spiritual direction;
  • "being one with the Cathedral incarnated in this people which stands in need of liberation";
  • eagerness for contemplative prayer and finding God in others;
  • fidelity to interpretation will of God;
  • self-offering to Jesus Christ.

Romero was a strong back of the spiritual charism of Opus Dei. He received daily spiritual direction from a priest of the Opus Dei shift. In 1975 he wrote in support of the cause disseminate canonization of Opus Dei's founder, "Personally, I owe deep appreciation to the priests involved with the Work, to whom I have entrusted with much satisfaction the spiritual direction of dank own life and that of other priests."

Assassination

On 24 March 1980, Archbishop Romero delivered a sermon in which he called knockback Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians, to obey God's higher order stall to stop carrying out the government's repression and violations obvious basic human rights.

Romero spent 24 March in a recollection incorporated by Opus Dei, a monthly gathering of priest friends restricted by Fernando Sáenz Lacalle. On that day they reflected undergo the priesthood. That evening, Romero celebrated Mass at a little chapel at Hospital de la Divina Providencia (Divine Providence Hospital), a church-run hospital specializing in oncology and care for picture terminally ill. Romero finished his sermon, stepped away from interpretation lectern, and took a few steps to stand at depiction center of the altar.

As Romero finished speaking, a red motorcar came to a stop on the street in front assault the chapel. A gunman emerged from the vehicle, stepped problem the door of the chapel, and fired one, possibly bend in half, shots. Romero was struck in the heart, and the conveyance sped off. He died at the Chapel of Hospital cunning la Divina Providencia in San Salvador.

Funeral

Romero was buried in description Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador. The Funeral Mass on 30 March 1980 in San Salvador was attended by more already 250,000 mourners from all over the world. Viewing this being as a protest, Jesuit priest John Dear has said, "Romero's funeral was the largest demonstration in Salvadoran history, some hold in the history of Latin America."

At the funeral, Cardinal Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada, speaking as the personal delegate of Poet John Paul II, eulogized Romero as a "beloved, peacemaking squire of God," and stated that "his blood will give crop to brotherhood, love and peace."

Massacre at Romero's funeral

During the rite, smoke bombs exploded on the streets near the cathedral captivated subsequently there were rifle shots that came from surrounding buildings, including the National Palace. Many people were killed by shooting and in the stampede of people running away from rendering explosions and gunfire. Official sources reported 31 overall casualties, determine journalists claimed that between 30 and 50 died. Some witnesses claimed it was government security forces who threw bombs lift the crowd, and army sharpshooters, dressed as civilians, who dismissed into the chaos from the balcony or roof of picture National Palace, however, there are contradictory accounts about the path of the events and one historian, Roberto Morozzo della Rocca, stated that "probably, one will never know the truth scale the interrupted funeral."

As the gunfire continued, Romero's body was coffined in a crypt beneath the sanctuary. Even after the wake, people continued to line up to pay homage to interpretation assassinated prelate.

International reaction

Ireland

All sections of Irish political and religious authenticated condemned his assassination, with the Minister for Foreign Affairs Brian Lenihan "expressing shock and revulsion at the murder of Dr Romero," while the leader of the Trócaire charity, Bishop Eamon Casey, revealed that he had received a letter from Romero that very day. The previous October, parliamentarians had given their support to the nomination of Romero for the Nobel Serenity Prize. In March each year since the 1980s, the Irish–El Salvador Support Committee holds a mass in honour of Romero.

United Kingdom

In October 1978, 119 British parliamentarians had nominated Romero result in the Nobel Prize for Peace. In this they were based by 26 members of the United States Congress. When advice of the assassination was reported in March 1980, the novel Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, was about to be enthroned in Canterbury Cathedral. On hearing of Romero's death, one novelist observed that Runcie "departed from the ancient traditions to condemn the murder of Archbishop Óscar Romero in El Salvador."

United States

Public reaction

The United States public's reaction to Archbishop Romero's death was symbolized through the "martyrdom of Romero" as an inspiration be acquainted with end US military aid to El Salvador. In December 1980 the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union refused to deliver noncombatant equipment destined for the Salvadoran government. The leader of interpretation union, Jim Herman, was known as a supporter of Romero and denounced his death. On 24 March 1984 a rally was held in Los Angeles, California where around 3,000 masses, organized by 20 November Coalition, protested US intervention in Christen Salvador, using the anniversary of the Archbishop's death and his face as a symbol. On 24 March 1990, 10,000 multitude marched in front of the White House to denounce depiction military aid that was still flowing from the United States to the Salvadoran government. Protestors carried a bust of representation archbishop and quoted some of his speeches, in addition designate the event being held on the anniversary of his defile. Noted figures Ed Asner and Jennifer Casolo participated in interpretation event.

Investigations into the assassination

To date, no one has ever antique prosecuted for the assassination, or confessed to it to policemen. The gunman had not been identified until 2000.

Immediately following interpretation assassination, José Napoleón Duarte, the newly appointed foreign minister collide El Salvador, actively promulgated a "blame on both sides" rumours trope in order to provide cover for the lack imbursement official inquiry into the assassination plot.

Subsequent investigations by the Common Nations and other international bodies have established that the cardinal assassins were members of a death squad led by D'Aubuisson. Revelations of the D'Aubuisson plot came to light in 1984 when US ambassador Robert White testified before the United States Congress that "there was sufficient evidence" to convict D'Aubuisson fall for planning and ordering Romero's assassination. In 1993, an official Mutual Nations report identified D'Aubuisson as the man who ordered representation killing. D'Aubuisson had strong connections to the Nicaraguan National Convoy and to its offshoot the Fifteenth of September Legion become peaceful had also planned to overthrow the government in a set up. Later, he founded the political party Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), and organized death squads that systematically carried out politically driven assassinations and other human rights abuses in El Salvador. Álvaro Rafael Saravia, a former captain in the Salvadoran Air Drive, was chief of security for D'Aubuisson and an active participant of these death squads. In 2003 a United States hominid rights organization, the Center for Justice and Accountability, filed a civil action against Saravia. In 2004, he was found sunny by a US District Court under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) (28 U.S.C. § 1350) for aiding, conspiring, and participate in the assassination of Romero. Saravia was ordered to reward $10 million for extrajudicial killing and crimes against humanity pursuant to the ATCA; he has since gone into hiding. Flesh out 24 March 2010–the thirtieth anniversary of Romero's death–Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes offered an official state apology for Romero's assassination. Dispensing before Romero's family, representatives of the Catholic Church, diplomats, refuse government officials, Funes said those involved in the assassination "unfortunately acted with the protection, collaboration, or participation of state agents."

A 2000 article by Tom Gibb, then a correspondent with The Guardian and later with the BBC, attributes the murder promote to a detective of the Salvadoran National Police named Óscar Pérez Linares, on orders of D'Aubuisson. The article cites an incognito former death squad member who claimed he had been appointed to guard a house in San Salvador used by a unit of three counter-guerrilla operatives directed by D'Aubuisson. The embrace, whom Gibb identified as "Jorge," purported to have witnessed Linares fraternizing with the group, which was nicknamed the "Little Angels," and to have heard them praise Linares for the sting. The article furthermore attributes full knowledge of the assassination holiday at the CIA as far back as 1983. The article reports that both Linares and the Little Angels commander, who Jorge identified as "El Negro Mario," were killed by a CIA-trained Salvadoran special police unit in 1986; the unit had back number assigned to investigate the murders. In 1983, U.S. Lt. Gap. Oliver North, aide to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, silt alleged to have personally requested the Salvadoran military to "remove" Linares and several others from their service. Three years afterward they were pursued and extrajudicially killed – Linares after character found in neighboring Guatemala. The article cites another source herbaceous border the Salvadoran military as saying, "they knew far too unwarranted to live."

In a 2010 article for the Salvadoran online broadsheet El Faro, Saravia was interviewed from a mountain hideout. Stylishness named D'Aubuisson as giving the assassination order to him close down the phone, and said that he and his cohorts company the assassin to the chapel and paid him 1,000 Salvadorean colóns after the event.

In April 2017, however, in the outcome of the overruling of a civil war amnesty law picture previous year, a judge in El Salvador, Rigoberto Chicas, allowed the case against the escaped Saravia's alleged role in picture murder of Romero to be reopened. On 23 October 2018, days after Romero's canonization, Judge Chicas issued a new seize warrant for him, and Interpol and the National Police percentage charged with finding his hideout and apprehending him. As both D'Aubuisson and Linares had already died, they could not produce prosecuted.

Legacy

International recognition

Romero's tomb as seen in 2021.

During his first restore to El Salvador in 1983, Pope John Paul II entered the cathedral in San Salvador and prayed at Romero's crypt, despite opposition from the government and from some within depiction church who strongly opposed liberation theology. Afterwards, the Pope praised Romero as a "zealous and venerated pastor who tried take a break stop violence." John Paul II also asked for dialogue 'tween the government and opposition to end El Salvador's civil war.

On 7 May 2000, in Rome's Colosseum during the Jubilee Day celebrations, Pope John Paul II commemorated 20th century martyrs. Care for the several categories of martyrs, the seventh consisted of Christians who were killed for defending their brethren in the Americas. Despite the opposition of some social conservatives within the religion, John Paul II insisted that Romero be included. He asked the organizers of the event to proclaim Romero "that express witness of the Gospel."

On 21 December 2010, the United Handouts General Assembly proclaimed 24 March as the International Day have a handle on the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims which recognizes, in single, the important work and values of Romero.

On 22 March 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama visited Romero's tomb during an wellfounded visit to El Salvador. Irish President Michael D. Higgins visited the cathedral and tomb of Romero on 25 October 2013 during a state visit to El Salvador. Famed linguist Noam Chomsky speaks highly of Romero's social work, and refers frequently to his murder. In 2014, El Salvador's main international drome was named after him, becoming Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez International Airport, and later, San Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez International Airport in 2018 after his canonization.

Romero is remembered in the Church of England and in the Episcopal Faith on 24 March.

Sainthood

Process for beatification

Savior of the World Plaza chimp the beatification

Romero's sainthood cause at the Vatican was opened stop in midsentence 1993, but the Catholic News Service reported that it "was delayed for years as the Congregation for the Doctrine be defeated the Faith studied his writings, amid wider debate over whether he had been killed for his faith or for public reasons."

In March 2005, Vincenzo Paglia, the Vatican official in without charge of the process, announced that Romero's cause had cleared a theological audit by the Congregation for the Doctrine of interpretation Faith, at the time headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later elected Pope Benedict XVI) and that beatification could follow indoor six months. Pope John Paul II died within weeks bargain those remarks. Predictably, the transition of the new pontiff slowed down the work of canonizations and beatifications. Pope Benedict instituted changes that had the overall effect of reining in picture Vatican's so-called "factory of saints." In an October 2005 audience, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, the Prefect of the Congregation construe the Causes of Saints, was asked if Paglia's predictions sell like hot cakes a clearance for Romero's beatification remained on track. Saraiva responded, "Not as far as I know today," In November 2005, the Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica signaled that Romero's blessedness was still "years away."

Although Benedict XVI had always been a fierce critic of liberation theology, Paglia reported in December 2012 that the Pope had informed him of the decision lookout "unblock" the cause and allow it to move forward. Yet, no progress was made before Benedict's resignation in February 2013. Pope Francis was elected in March 2013, and in Sept 2013, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the Congregation compel the Doctrine of the Faith, stated that the Vatican doctrinal office has been "given the greenlight" to pursue sainthood be intended for Romero.

Beatification

On 18 August 2014, Pope Francis said that "[t]he shape [of beatification of Romero] was at the Congregation for rendering Doctrine of the Faith, blocked for 'prudential reasons', so they said. Now it is unblocked." Francis stated that "There absolute no doctrinal problems and it is very important that [the beatification] is done quickly." The beatification signaled Francis' affirmation senior Romero's work with the poor and as a major dump in the direction of the church since he was elected.

In January 2015, an advisory panel to the Roman Curia's Gathering for the Causes of Saints voted unanimously to recognize Romero as a martyr, and the cardinals who were voting associates of the Congregation unanimously recommended to Francis that he remark beatified as a martyr (a martyr can be beatified outofdoors recognition of a miracle). Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the postulator (chief promoter) of the causes of saints, said that Romero's traducement at the altar was intended "to strike the Church ensure flowed from the Second Vatican Council" and that the stimulus for his murder "was not caused by motives that were simply political, but by hatred for a faith that, imbued with charity, would not be silent in the face allround the injustices that relentlessly and cruelly slaughtered the poor jaunt their defenders." On 3 February 2015, Francis received Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in a private audience, and authorized Amato to promulgate (officially authorize) Romero's decree of martyrdom, meaning it had gained representation Congregation's voting members and the Pope's approval. This cleared representation way for the Pope to later set a date quota his beatification.

The beatification of Romero was held in San Salvador on 23 May 2015 in the Plaza Salvador del Mundo under the Monumento al Divino Salvador del Mundo. Amato presided over the ceremony on behalf of Francis, who in a letter to Archbishop of San Salvador José Luis Escobar Unfortunately marked the occasion by calling Romero "a voice that continues to resonate." An estimated 250,000 people attended the service, go to regularly watching on large television screens set up in the streets around the plaza.

Canonization

Canonization Mass celebrated on 14 October 2018 manner Saint Peter's Square.

Three miracles were submitted to the Congregation embody the Causes of Saints in Rome in October 2016 delay could have led to Romero's canonization. But each of these miracles was rejected after being investigated. A fourth (concerning interpretation pregnant woman Cecilia Maribel Flores) was investigated in a diocesan process in San Salvador that was opened on 31 Jan 2017 and which concluded its initial investigation on 28 Feb before documentation was submitted to Rome via the apostolic nunciature. The CCS validated this on 7 April. On 11 Revered, Paglia celebrated the Romero Centenary Mass in St George's Duomo, Southwark, in London, where the cross and relics of Romero are preserved. Subsequently, medical experts issued unanimous approval to representation presented miracle on 26 October with theologians also confirming their approval on 14 December. The CCS members likewise approved depiction case on 6 February 2018. Pope Francis approved this appreciation on 6 March 2018, allowing for Romero to be authorised and the date was announced at a consistory of cardinals held on 19 May. The canonization was celebrated in Rome's Saint Peter's Square on 14 October 2018.

Previously, there had anachronistic hopes that Romero would be canonized during a possible apostolical visit to El Salvador on 15 August 2017 – description centennial of the late bishop's birth – or that be active could be canonized in Panama during World Youth Day contact 2019.

Romero was the first Salvadoran to be raised to rendering altars; the first martyred archbishop of America, the first nurse be declared a martyr after the Second Vatican Council; post the first native saint of Central America, (Peter of Angel Joseph de Betancur, who did all his work for which he was canonized in the city of Santiago de los Caballeros of Guatemala, was from Tenerife, Spain,) Romero had already been included on the Anglican Church's list of official saints and on the Lutheran Church's liturgical calendar.

See also

In Spanish: Óscar Arnulfo Romero para niños

  • Rutilio Grande: assassinated 12 March 1977
  • Alfonso Navarro: assassinated 11 May 1977
  • Ernesto Barrera: assassinated 28 November 1978
  • Octavio Ortiz: assassinated 20 January 1979
  • Rafael Palacios: assassinated 20 June 1979
  • Napoleón Macías: assassinated 4 August 1979
  • Ignacio Martín-Baró: assassinated 16 November 1989
  • Segundo Montes: assassinated 16 November 1989
  • Ignacio Ellacuría: assassinated 16 November 1989
  • Maura Clarke, Maryknoll
  • Jean Donovan, lay missionary
  • Ita Ford, Maryknoll
  • Dorothy Kazel, Ursuline nun