Archbishop Oscar Romero on
wall of martyrs in El Salvador

Recently I sent a friend the essays I wrote after my pilgrimages with Global Awareness through Experience, (GATE), to Latin America. When she went to read about my pilgrimage to El Salvador which I called El Salvador: Land of Barb Wire and Flowers the page had just a picture on it of the tomb in El Salvador of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was martyred by US trained soldiers 31 years ago today. On the tomb is inscribed his motto as Bishop, “Sentir con la Iglesia”. It is a motto he took from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola which means “to be of one mind with the church.” The church for him was all the people, especially the poor and marginalized of society.

When I was in El Salvador we met with a group of youth who were working in the spirit of Romero to deliver solidarity to a country that had been divided by a tragic civil war between the rich and poor. These youth were not even born when Archbishop Romero died, yet they spoke and were acting in his spirit. I was reminded of one the many great quotes from Archbishop Romero: “Frequently I have been threatened with death. I should tell you that, as a Christian, I don’t believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will be resurrected in the Salvadoran people.” Truly I was experiencing the resurrection of Oscar Romero in these youth.

I could go on with my experiences in El Salvador but I will save them to the day, if every, I finish the story of my pilgrimage. Rather today, the anniversary of his assassination, I rather treat you to a few of his quotes that apply to us today. They are from the The Little Book of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Enjoy, reflect and act for Oscar Romero Lives:

”…faith lived out in isolation from life is not true faith.”

“We are the small David against the giant Goliath who trusts his weapons, his power and his money. We trust in the name of God.”

“The Lord doesn’t like the religion of Sunday masses and unfair weekdays. Religion with a lot of praying but hypocrisy in the heart is not Christian.”

“Structural violence…takes concrete form in the unjust distribution of wealth and of property – especially insofar as it includes landownership – and more generally, in that amalgam of economic and political structures by which the few grow increasingly rich and powerful while the remainder grow increasingly poor and weak.”

“Those responsible for the institutionalization of violence, and for the international structures that cause it, are those who monopolize economic power instead of sharing it, those who defend them through violence.”

“Brothers, you are from the same people; you kill your fellow peasant. No soldier is obliged to obey and order that is contrary to the will of God. In the name of God then, in the name of the suffering people I ask you, I beg you, I command you…stop the repression.”

“As a Christian you should use your own criterion to know how to say no when you have to. Do not follow the rest when they do what they shouldn’t be doing as Christians.”

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