El Salvador prepares to receive Saint Romero
[Foundation Cristosal press release] The Roman Catholic Church has now announced the long-awaited beatification of Archbishop Oscar Anulfo Romero on May 23rd of this year. Thirty-five years after Romero was assassinated by a right-wing death squad while officiating an evening mass, El Salvador plans to raise him to the altars. Romero is perhaps best known for his outspoken critique of the Salvadoran military, including his courageous public denunciations of the atrocities committed by the military prior to the start of the country’s 12-year civil war.
Today, the Romerist environment in El Salvador is very much alive with different ecclesiastic and social entities preparing not only for the beatification, but also to commemorate Romero in May. According to recently retired Bishop Martín Barahona of the Anglican Church of El Salvador, this kairos, or supreme moment, is God’s moment, and it is Romero’s moment as the most universal Salvadoran in the world.
Barahona, also the co-founder of Foundation Cristosal, a human rights non-profit based in El Salvador, has spoken in various spaces on the link between the martyr and The Episcopal Church. He says specifically that it was The Episcopal Church who first included Romero and the Martyrs of El Salvador among the saints. You can find Romero’s legacy enshrined in Westminster Abbey in London, and in the cupola of the National Cathedral in Washington. “We have recognized [Romero’s] sanctity in the very way that we live out our religion,” Barahona said.
Foundation Cristosal is offering an open pilgrimage from May 21st through the 26th for North Americans seeking to celebrate, reflect and participate with Salvadorans in the celebration of Romero and his legacy. The pilgrimage seeks for participants to have the vivencia or “lived experience” of Romero: planned activities include visits to historic cites, movie forums, reflections and participation in the canonization itself, which will take place in the plaza of El Salvador del Mundo.
In early February, Pope Francis “fast tracked” Romero’s path towards sainthood by decreeing him a martyr of the Catholic faith. In a truly prophetic statement, Romero seems to respond, “Martyrdom is a grace of God I do not think I deserve. But if God accepts the sacrifice of my life, may my blood be the seed of liberty and the sign that hope will soon become reality.”
— Susana Barrera is the director of Foundation Cristosal’s Global School. For more information on the pilgrimage, please e-mail rthompson@cristosal.org.