Archbishop Oscar Romero
“If I am killed, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people.” Archbishop Oscar Romero shortly before he was assassinated March 24, 1980.
Yesterday I was trying to explain to my grandchildren that it was the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Romero, a holy leader in El Salvador. I explained how he stood with the people, especially the poor and repressed and that he had been killed for his work by the military.
Usually I am good at telling stories about persons like Romero to children but I sensed they had a hard time understanding this story. I finally realized that the idea of a ‘martyr’, someone who dies for her or her beliefs, is a foreign concept in our society. A modern day martyr is a hard for us to understand. A soldier dying in war is easy to understand but not a nonviolent warrior giving his life for others.
Today, not hearing anything about the anniversary celebration in El Salvador, which was being prepared for when I was there, I looked up Archbishop Romero’s 30th anniversary on the web. I found a Tim’s El Salvador blog which was about El Salvador and Archbishop Oscar Romero. To my surprise Tim is right here in Milwaukee.
From Tim’s El Salvador bog I was led to The Archbishop Romero Trust, “a precious resource bank of materials on Archbishop Romero’s life and martyrdom”. One of the resources is translated copies of his homilies from 1977–1980.
Also yesterday I started to reorganize the ‘nonviolent’ side of this web site, www.nonviolentcow.org. I am putting three major pages under the heading “Nonviolence or Militarism”. They are Teach War No More; No More War Spending; Spirituality of Nonviolence. In days to come I will try to organize already posted articles and research under these three major categories.
Archbishop’s Romero’s life and message has plenty to say on all three of these areas of Nonviolence and Militarism. For example the day before he was assassinated he had these words for soldiers in the military. With a few minor changes these words could apply to us and our military.
I would like to appeal in a special way to the army’s enlisted men, and in particular to the ranks of the Guardia Nacional and the police — those in the barracks.
Brothers: you are of part of our own people. You kill your own campesino brothers and sisters. Before an order to kill that a man may give, God’s law must prevail: Thou shalt not kill! No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God. No one has to fulfill an immoral law. It is time to take back your consciences and to obey your consciences rather than the orders of sin. The Church, defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, of the person, cannot remain silent before such abominations. We want the government to understand seriously that reforms are worth nothing if they are stained with so much blood. In the name of God, and in the name of this suffering people, whose laments rise to heaven each day more tumultuous, I beg you, I beseech you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression!
The Church preaches its liberation just as we have studied it today in the Holy Bible — a liberation that includes above all, respect for the human person, the salvation of the people’s common good, and transcendence, which looks before all to God, and from God alone derives its hope and its force.
Homily of Oscar Romero, March 23, 1980, One day before his assassination
Yes, Archbishop Romero’s words were true: “If I am killed, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people.” However, his spirit lives not only in the Salvadoran people but in people throughout the world.
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