A year after his canonization and the DXXVII anniversary of Cristobal Colon's "accidental" discovery of the New World
"Óscar Arnulfo Romero (1917–1980), was canonized a saint by Pope Francis, on October 14, 2018. It is only fitting that the first Latin American Pope would canonize Óscar Romero. As Archbishop of San Salvador for the last four years of his life, Romero was a strong, public voice for the many voiceless and anonymous poor of El Salvador and Latin America. When he preached in the cathedral on Sunday mornings, I’m told that the streets were empty and all the radios where on full volume, to hear truth and sanity in an insane and corrupt world." Fr. Richard Rohr.
I visited El Salvador many times during our work with Alfalit Latinoamericano in the ‘80's. St. Óscar's assassination in 1980 had taken place earlier, and yet his memory and ministry was in the hearts and hopes of marginalized people who shared with me (sometimes in whispers, for fear of persecution) as I travelled through Latin America. Actually, the poor had canonized him years before this moment.
In 2003, I went on a grief pilgrimage to El Salvador, Cuba, and spent time with a spiritual director, in memory of my son, Corry who had transitioned the previous year. I chose places where I knew people would understand Grief through Suffering as a spiritual discipline, something quite rare in my country.
When I arrived to El Salvador (named after the Savior, ironically one of the most violent countries in Central America), I entered the community of the Carmelite nuns in San Salvador, where St. Oscar lived, and broadcasted his radio messages to the people. He had refused to live in the Archbishop's palace as being too ostentatious.
I entered his cell and saw his simple bed, the desk, with the radio and microphone there, ready for another message. Then I went to the small chapel where on March 24, 1980, he was celebrating mass with the nuns, when he was martyred. I sat in a pew, prayed and meditated, focusing my eyes on the place behind the altar, where he stood when lifted up his arms, consecrating the host the bread - the body of Christ).
The assassin, was in the shadows, at the side entrance, with one hallow point bullet in the chamber, waiting. He was there at the behest of the seven most powerful families in the country while the United States operatives knew what was to happen.
U.S. foreign policy since 1947, was to "contain communism,” wherever it arose. It didn’t matter how much the cost in “collateral damage."
The shooter must have been Catholic, because he knew when St. Óscar would raise his arms at the consecration of the host, exposing his chest. A nun assisting St. Óscar, stood by his side when the bullet slammed into his chest and exploded his heart. He never knew what hit him, as he collapsed dead in a pool of blood.
After spending some time in the chapel alone, I heard voices. A man was showing his guests the chapel. After he greeted me I found out that he was one of St. Óscar's young priests who assisted had him. He invited me to join the group as we went to the Sacristy (where priests prepare to celebrate the mass).
As we entered he motioned to us to a clothes hanger where the liturgical robes were hanging. He took a cassock off the hanger and showed us the dry and gray blood stains on the robe that St. Óscar was wearing that night. Then he pointed his finger at a small hole where the bullet went through.
St. Óscar's canonization is a confirmation that martyrs, as witnesses, have died with Christ and are resurrected with Christ, defending human rights for all persons, co-creating with God, the Reign of God. It is no accident that St. Óscar's canonization occurred two days after the 527th anniversary of Cristobal Colón's "accidental discovery" of the New World, and the beginning of the genocide and subjugation of the indigenous people and their cultures in America (North, Central, South).
St. Óscar began his ministry as a young priest, a member of one of the seven powerful families in El Salvador. Many thought he could be manipulated to maintain the status quo, to be on the side with the powerful while ignoring the cries of the poor.
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Three weeks ago, I was in Berlin, in the attic apartment of another saint, evangelical pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He too died a martyr in his attempt to rid Germany from Hitler. I saw his books, his simple bed, his desk and chair by the corner window. In my mind's eye I saw the Gestapo agents through the window, and entering his parent's house, on that fateful day, 5 April, 1943 when he was arrested.
Through the centuries, saints were born as ordinary persons who under extraordinary circumstances were filled with the Holy Spirit to fulfill God's Reign in a suffering world, often at the cost of their lives. And so it is with Óscar and (St) Dietrich - Presente! Vorhanden!
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