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| People of El Salvador carry picture of martyr during march |
Words rarely spoken, risks rarely taken by preachers, priests
or politicians, pundits or proselytizers; church or state
Minor edit, excerpting by Carolyn Bennett
America Central
“After witnessing numerous violations of human rights, Roman
Catholic Priest Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (Monsignor Romero) began to
speak out on behalf of the poor and the victims of repression.” This led to many conflicts with the El Salvadoran government and within the Catholic Church.
“After speaking out against US military support for the
government of El Salvador and calling for soldiers to disobey orders to fire
on innocent civilians, Archbishop Romero was shot dead” as he celebrated Mass
at the small chapel within the cancer hospital where he lived. “It is believed that those who organized his assassination
were members of Salvadoran death squads, including two graduates of the (US) School
of the Americas.”
Now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security
Cooperation (WHINSEC), previously called the US Army School of the Americas, a
US Department of Defense Institute located at Fort Benning, Georgia (near
Columbus), this notorious entity “provides military training to government personnel in US-allied
Latin American nations” [Wikipedia note].
Óscar
Arnulfo Romero
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| People of El Salvador |
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (b. August 15, 1917 in Ciudad
Barrios, El Salvador; d. March 24, 1980, in El Salvadoran capital San Salvador),
his body is buried in San Salvador Cathedral. A Roman Catholic priest ordained April
4, 1942, dedicated June 21, 1970, he was Bishop of Santiago de María
(1974-1977), Auxiliary Bishop of San Salvador (1970-1974), and The Most Reverend
Venerable Óscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador (February 23, 1977-March 24,
1980)
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| People of El Salvador |
When
the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social
structures that give rise to and perpetuate the misery from which the cry
arises [Monsignor Romero, August 6, 1978].
Conservative, Progressive
“Romero spent the first two and half decades of his
ministerial career as a parish priest and diocesan secretary in San Miguel. In
1970 he became auxiliary bishop of San Salvador and served in that position
until 1974 when the Vatican named him to the diocese of Santiago de María, a
poor, rural region which included his boyhood hometown. In 1977 he returned to
the capital to succeed San Salvador’s aged metropolitan archbishop.”
Peace
is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.
Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous,
tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is
generosity. It is right and it is duty [Monsignor Romero, January 7, 1978].
“Romero’s rise to prominence in the Catholic hierarchy
coincided with a period of dramatic change in the Church in Latin America. The
region’s bishops, meeting at Medellín, Colombia, in 1968 to discuss local
implementation of the recommendations of the Second Vatican Council
(1962-1965), had resolved to abandon the hierarchy's traditional role as
defender of the status quo and to side, instead, with the continent's poor in
their struggle for social justice.”
The
church preaches your liberation just as we have studied it… today. It is a liberation that has, above all
else, respect for the dignity of the person, hope for humanity's common good,
and… transcendence… [Monsignor Romero, March 14, 1980].
“This radical departure divided both the faithful and the
clergy.
“During this period Oscar Romero’s reputation was as a
conservative and on more than one occasion he showed himself skeptical of both
Vatican II reforms and the Medellín pronouncements. For this reason his
appointment as archbishop in 1977 was not popular with the socially committed
clergy, to whom it appeared to signal the Vatican's desire to restrain them.”
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| People of El Salvador |
…
One must not love oneself so much as to avoid getting involved in the risks of
life that history requires of us; … whoever seeks to avoid danger loses his or
her life. Whoever out of love … gives oneself to the service of others lives…. Like
the grain of wheat that dies—but only apparently… Only in undoing itself does
it produce the harvest [Monsignor Romero, March 1980].
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| People of El Salvador |
“To their surprise, Romero emerged as an
outspoken opponent of injustice and defender of the poor.” Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez raised his
voice in the causes against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and
torture. His final benediction, he said:
…May
my death be for the freedom of my people….
Sources and notes
Archbishop Romero's biography (Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo
Romero, Monsignor Romero), International Day for the Right to the Truth
Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims, United
Nations March 24, http://www.un.org/en/events/righttotruthday/romero.shtml
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero
http://www.share-elsalvador.org/get-involved/learn-more/current-issues/oscar-romero#sthash.ICb05PkZ.dpuf
http://www.share-elsalvador.org/get-involved/learn-more/current-issues/oscar-romero
Archbishop Oscar Romero The Last Sermon (1980)
“…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.
“The church preaches your liberation just as we have studied
it in just as we have studied it in the holy Bible today. It is a liberation
that has, above all else, respect for the dignity of the person, hope for
humanity's common good, and the transcendence that looks before all to God and
only from God derives its hope and its strength.
“Archbishop Oscar Romero The Last Sermon (1980),” From The
Church and Human Liberation, March 14, 1980, http://www.haverford.edu/relg/faculty/amcguire/romero.html
El Salvador
In Central America, the country El Salvador is the smallest
and most densely populated of the seven Central American countries. Despite
having little level land, it traditionally was an agricultural country, heavily
dependent upon coffee exports. By the end of the 20th century, however, the
service sector had come to dominate the economy.
San
Salvador
San Salvador is El Salvador’s capital and the country’s
leading financial, commercial, and industrial center. Transportation is here,
with railroads and highways linking it with the Pacific ports of Acajutla, La
Unión (Cutuco), and La Libertad. Manufactures include textiles, clothing,
leather goods, wood products, pharmaceuticals, cigarettes, and cigars;
meatpacking and liquor distilling are also important. [Britannica notes]
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A lifelong American writer and writer/activist (former academic and staffer with the U.S. government in Washington), Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett is credentialed in education and print journalism and public affairs (PhD, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan; MA, The American University, Washington, DC). Her work concerns itself with news and current affairs, historical contexts, and ideas particularly related to acts and consequences of U.S. foreign relations, geopolitics, human rights, war and peace, and violence and nonviolence. Dr. Bennett is an internationalist and nonpartisan progressive personally concerned with society and the common good. An educator at heart, her career began with the U.S. Peace Corps, teaching in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Since then, she has authored several books and numerous current-affairs articles; her latest book: UNCONSCIONABLE: How The World Sees Us: World News, Alternative Views, Commentary on U.S. Foreign Relations; most thoughts, articles, edited work are posted at Bennett’s Study: http://todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com/ and on her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/08UNCONSCIONABLE/prweb12131656.htm http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-000757788/UNCONSCIONABLE.aspx Her books are also available at independent bookstores in New York State: Lift Bridge in Brockport; Sundance in Geneseo; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center in Buffalo; Burlingham Books in Perry; The Bookworm in East Aurora
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