Archbishop Oscar Romero: 30 year anniversary
24 March 2010 marked the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. His struggle for justice lives on today in the lives of the Salvadoran people. Events across the country celebrated his life including a celebration with head of state Mauricio Funes, who has dedicated his presidency to the Archbishop. Celebrations were held across the UK in solidarity.
Oscar Romero was a priest and bishop in El Salvador. His love for his people who were suffering violence and oppression led him to take their side and to denounce their oppressors. He was killed whilst saying Mass.
Bishop Arthur Roche from Leeds has returned from El Salvador deeply moved by his experience of the Romero anniversary celebrations in late March.
He was accompanied by Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham and two CAFOD colleagues, Clare Dixon and Geoff O’Donoghue. The group spent about a week in El Salvador, meeting people who had known Monseñor Romero personally and visiting the places where he lived and preached.
The Romero anniversary celebrations culminated on the evening of Saturday 20 March with an open-air Eucharist Mass in front of San Salvador cathedral. Bishop Arthur and Archbishop Bernard were joined at the altar by church leaders from around the world and looked on as thousands of Salvadorans gathered to honour Romero´s life and martyrdom.
Hours earlier, worshippers walked through the streets of San Salvador, holding candles in a Pilgrimage of Light. They stopped along their journey at five Stations of the Cross, where they reflected on Romero’s homilies. After Mass, many people stayed on in the cathedral square for an evening of Salvadoran music and an all-night vigil.
Bishop Arthur and Archbishop Bernard took the opportunity during their stay in El Salvador to visit some of CAFOD´s partner organisations and the communities with whom they work. They met with the staff of Tutela Legal, the Archdiocesan human rights office, which was set up by Monseñor Romero in the late 1970s. They also travelled west, past the Izalco volcano, to the village of Puentecitos where they enjoyed some delicious chicken soup with local farmers working with the Jesuit Development Service.
Reflecting back on his visit, Bishop Arthur wrote: “The impact of the journey is only now unravelling in my mind. I think one of the things that most impresses itself upon me, and which was so clearly evident in all with whom we met, was that precious gift which the Lord speaks of as ´poverty of spirit´. So many stories, so many challenges, so much hardship and yet, in the midst of it all, such beauty”.
