At a time when we see daily reports and images of horrific oppression and violence in Ukraine, the life and witness of Oscar Romero is especially important. He was assassinated 42 years ago on March 24, 1980 while celebrating mass at a hospital chapel. He was the Archbishop of San Salvador during the bloody civil war in El Salvador. When he was appointed as Archbishop in 1977, Oscar Romero was seen as someone who would not cause political trouble and would maintain the status quo. Yet in that same year, his good friend and fellow priest Rutilio Grande was killed by a government sponsored death squad because of his work advocating for the rights of poor people. Further acts of government repression and the assassination of other priests led Archbishop Romero to support reform efforts for the poor and to speak out forcefully against government oppression. Far from maintaining the status quo, he became a champion of the poor based on his renewed commitment to the way of Jesus as revealed in the gospels. Shortly before his death, Archbishop Romero gave a sermon that ended with the following words addressed to government soldiers:
“Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. 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 obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders. The church cannot remain silent before such an abomination. …In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: stop the repression.”
Within a day of this sermon, a government sponsored death squad shot Oscar Romero in the heart while he stood at the altar of a hospital chapel. The right wing government of El Salvador received support from the United States government at that time and throughout that country’s civil war. The life, death, and witness of Oscar Romero remind us that the way of Jesus calls us to nonviolent resistance of oppression and violence whether it comes from the political left or right. His words quoted below reveal what it takes to end violence and pursue genuine peace in El Salvador, Ukraine, the United States, or anywhere in the world:
“I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from the management of the country, repression. All this is what constitutes the primal cause, from which the rest flows naturally.”
The short video posted below was produced to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his assassination. It features Oscar Romero sharing his faith and commitment to the way of Jesus in the face of the threats and violence that ultimately took his life but not his witness or legacy for today.