POPE FRANCIS DECLARES EL SALVADOR’S OSCAR ROMERO A SAINT
Canonization of assassinated archbishop to take place on Sunday, October 14th in Rome
October 14th, 2018
ROME – THE VATICAN – An audience of over 70,000 amassed in Rome over the weekend for the canonization of Monsenor Oscar Arnulfo Romero into sainthood.
Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was born in the small town of El Salvador known as Ciudad Barrios in August 15th of 1917 . He 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 March 24th of 1980, Romero was assassinated while officiating Mass in the chapel of the Hospital of Divine Providence. Though no one was ever convicted for the crime, investigations by the Truth Commission for El Salvador concluded that the extreme right-wing politician, founder of ARENA and death squad leader Roberto D’Aubuisson had given the order. A crowd of more than 100,000 people were attending Romero’s funeral when the military fired on the crowd, killing dozens of mourners.
Almost forty years after being gunned down in a hospital church in El Salvador, Archbishop Óscar Romero was named a saint on Sunday to cheers in St. Peter’s Square, while thousands watched the ceremony on video monitors in the Salvadoran capital.
Centro Romero was founded in 1984 to meet the needs of the rapidly increasing Latino immigrant and refugee populations. Named in honor of Archbishop Oscar Romero, a Salvadoran Roman Catholic cleric who was killed in his own church in San Salvador in 1980 for his outspoken defense of human rights of his native Salvadorans during its long civil war. The mission of Centro Romero is to empower those with the fewest options in the immigrant and refugee community by developing and strengthening the family unit, fostering community leadership and providing quality social and adjustment services.