14 October 2018

Oscar Romero: Slain Salvadoran Archbishop A Real Latter-Day Saint/Canonized Today by Pope Francis

It took nearly four decades for The Church - the Roman Catholic Church - to make Argentine-born Oscar Romero a Saint. Today tens of thousands of pilgrims were in The Holy See in The Vatican to praise and witness the elevation of Oscar Romero to sainthood, along with former Catholic Pope Paul VI who was born in Poland. Both were champions for social justice giving their good works and voices to those who had no voice in troubled times.
These are troubled times again after the Iran-Contra interventions in Central America in the 1970's. We are now (some four decades after those contra-rebel wars)  new waves of immigrants fleeing  violence and oppression from  El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala who are seeking refuge here.
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Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador, who served as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. He spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations, and torture. In 1980, Romero was gunned down in cold blood,murdered by death-squads and assassinated in public while offering Mass in the chapel of the Hospital of Divine Providence.
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Who was Archbishop Oscar Romero?
Oscar Romero was Archbishop of San Salvador. He was assassinated on Monday March 24th 1980 as he was celebrating Mass in the chapel of the Divine Providence cancer hospital where he lived. Thirty five years later, he was declared a martyr of the Church, killed out of hatred of the faith, and was beatified on May 23rd 2015.
Find out more about Archbishop Romero here.
Below you can watch a short animation to introduce the life, witness, martyrdom and ongoing inspiration of Blessed Oscar Arnulfo Romero.

You can find a detailed timeline of the Century of Romero 1917-2017 in the menu above under About Romero, or clicking: 1917-19671967-19771977-19801980-2017.
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Americas
Pope Francis honors martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador
Two of the most contentious Roman Catholic figures of the 20th century have been made saints. Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero and Pope Paul VI were among six religious figures canonized in a Vatican ceremony.
Beatification ceremony for Romero, with portable shrine containing his bloodstained shirt.
Oscar Romero: A life dedicated to helping the poor
He could not be silenced
In his sermons, Romero, who was beatified in 2015, repeatedly condemned security forces' attacks on El Salvador’s civilian population. He was murdered by a gunman on March 24, 1980, while holding mass. His death marked the beginning of El Salvador’s civil war (1980-1992).
After years of stagnant discussion over honoring martyred bishop Oscar Romero in the Catholic Church, things suddenly moved very quickly.
The urgency began when Argentina's Jorge Bergoglio became Pope Francis in 2013. Two years later, he beatified Archbishop Romero, who was gunned down in El Salvador in 1980.
On Sunday, Romero was one of six to be canonized as a saint in a ceremony led by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square. . . "