Salvadorans urge sainthood for martyred archbishop

[Judi Lynn]

Mar 24, 4:07 PM EDT
Salvadorans urge sainthood for martyred archbishop
By MARCOS ALEMAN
Associated Press

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) -- Salvadorans marched through the streets of San Salvador on Palm Sunday to honor the slain Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero and express hope the new Pope Francis will advance him along the path to sainthood.

Hundreds were forced to stand outside during services at the thronged hospital chapel where Romero was shot in the heart as he said Mass on March 24, 1980, by a gunman linked to the military government of the time. Some carried signs calling him "Saint Romero of America."

Church leaders say they believe Francis' accession to the papacy will help their effort to win beatification and eventual sainthood for Romero, who was killed after his increasingly strident defense of Central American nation's poor and denunciations of government violence. His killing was one of the triggers that set off a civil war that left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing over the next 12 years.

"We are more hopeful that at last Romero will be beatified. He is a martyr. He is a saint," said Lucia Escalante, a retired schoolteacher of 65 who attended the Mass at the hospital which treats patients with terminal cancer.

"They killed Romero for defending the weakest, the poorest, for saying the truth, for denouncing injustice, and he is a martyr of the church," she said.

More:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_EL_SALVADOR_REMEMBERING_ROMERO?SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[center]~~~~~[/center]
School of the Americas:
School of Assassins, USA

[center] " We routinely had Latin American students at the School of the Americas (SOA)
who were known human rights abusers, and it didn't make any difference to us."

Major Joseph Blair (retired), former SOA instructor[/center]

Graduates of the SOA have been among the most repressive tyrants in Latin America, and their actions have been some of the most cruel and violent. In El Salvador, in 1989, a Salvadoran army patrol executed six Jesuit priests as they lay face-down on the ground at Central America University. According to the United Nation's Truth Commission Report on El Salvador in 1993, 19 of the 27 officers who took part in the executions were trained at the SOA.

In 1990, in El Salvador, populist Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated. Three-quarters of the Salvadoran officers implicated in the killing were trained at the SOA. Roberto D'Aubuison, the late leader of El Salvador's Death Squad, was implicated in the plot to assassinate Archbishop Romero. He also participated in numerous murders, including a massacre in the village of El Mazote, where more than 900 men, women, and children were killed. He graduated from SOA as well.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/SOA/SOA.html

[flamingdem]

1. I truly hope they can achieve this

Romero was an incredible historic figure and means so much to those who suffered.

However, historical point. It was 1980, not 1990.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Yep, you're right! Somone was in a big hurry, apparently.

I have to admit, it almost seems like yesterday, however, in its intensity. It left people of all faiths, and non-religious people shocked, and grieving.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Astounding courage, dignity revealed in Archbishop Romero's last speech:

Archbishop Oscar Romero
The Last Sermon (1980)

~snip~

I would like to make a special appeal to the men of the army, and specifically to the ranks of the National Guard, the police and the military. Brothers, you come from our own people. You are killing your own brother peasants when any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God which says, "Thou shalt not kill." No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you recovered your consciences and obeyed your consciences rather than a sinful order. The church, the defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, of the person, cannot remain silent before such an abomination. We want the government to face the fact that reforms are valueless if they are to be carried out at the cost of so much blood. In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression.

More:
http://www.haverford.edu/relg/faculty/amcguire/romero.html

[Judi Lynn]

4. Essential information re: the Archbishop's funeral, used for a massacre.

Essential information re: the Archbishop's funeral, used for a massacre.
A Report from Romero's Funeral
James L. Connor
From April 26, 1980

he U.S. Government's official position toward El Salvador is badly misguided. Of that I am now convinced. Prior to March 30, I would not have said this so confidently. But that day I got a fresh perspective on the question as I huddled with 4,000 terrified peasants inside San Salvador's cathedral while bombs exploded and bullets whistled outside in the plaza where we had gathered to celebrate the funeral of Archbishop Oscar Romero.
……

The funeral ceremonies started calmly on a beautiful, but hot day. A procession of some 30 bishops (from England, Ireland, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica and the United States) and more than 200 priests wound its way through eight or ten blocks of the city from the church where we had vested to the cathedral. Hundreds of people lined the sidewalks, many of them listening to a radio broadcast of the event on their transistor radios. We had been assured that the day would be peaceful and free of "events." The Popular Front, including the far left, had covenanted to observe nonviolence in honor of the archbishop, and it seemed unthinkable that the hard-line right would desecrate this moment unless first provoked.

At first, all went as promised. The bishops and clergy processed into the cathedral through a side door, went out the front door to salute the altar set up in front of the cathedral, and then moved to our assigned places. The clergy remained inside the front door of the cathedral while the bishops stood outside on the altar platform and faced the square. The entire plaza was filled in of more than 100,000 persons, and thousands more spilled over into the side streets leading to it.

All went peacefully through a succession of prayers, readings, hymns until the moment in his homily when Cardinal Ernesto Corripio Ahumada of Mexico, the personal delegate of Pope John Paul II, began to praise Archbishop Romero as a man of peace and a foe of violence. Suddenly, a bomb exploded at the far edge of the plaza, seemingly in front of the National Palace, a government building. Next, gun shots, sharp and clear, echoed off the walls surrounding the plaza. At first, the cardinal's plea for all to remain calm seemed to have a steadying impact. But as another explosion reverberated, panic took hold and the crowd broke ranks and ran. Some headed for the side streets, but thousands more rushed up the stairs and fought their way into the cathedral.

More:
http://americamagazine.org/issue/100/report-romeros-funeral

[Judi Lynn]

5. Video: Massacre in El Salvador during Oscar Romero's funeral

Massacre in El Salvador during Oscar Romero's funeral

[Judi Lynn]

6. Just discovered Raul Julia's portrayal of Archbishop Romero is available on YouTube

in 11 parts, the first one starting here:

Hope someone will find it useful. I'm looking forward to seeing it, myself.