The Witness of Archbishop Oscar Romero

The beauty of the Christian experience is that God’s Holy Spirit constantly moves the hearts of those called to be followers of Jesus Christ to witness the truth of the Gospel in the here and now of our lives. It is exactly where we are, in the continuum of history, sharing the joys and hopes of those who live with us while accompanying them in their grief and anxieties, that Christian life unfolds. Although every Christian is to live this same experience to the fullest, there are those whom the Church remembers with special love because through their lives we learn something special about the unending depths of God’s divine mystery. We remember them as disciples, witnesses, saints.

On May 23, 2015 the Church celebrated the witness of Archbishop Oscar Romero from El Salvador in the ceremony of his beatification. That very same day I intentionally finished reading the present biography, written by Professor Roberto Morozzo della Rocca, and wrote this foreword. Doing so on this particular day afforded me the opportunity to participate in the experience of being, feeling, and thinking with the Church in a very unique way. These verbs, as Professor Morozzo della Rocca shares throughout his book, were defining for Archbishop Romero during his life as a man who deeply loved the Church.

For Romero, being, feeling, and thinking with the Church meant faithfulness to his vocation to being an authentic Christian disciple and to the ecclesial community within which he actively lived his witness. Such fidelity was expressed consistently through a special love for the Scriptures and the Church’s Tradition. This is more than evident in the many homilies, pastoral letters, and other documents he wrote throughout his life. Without a doubt, Romero was a man of the Church. His fidelity was further realized through a sincere love for the people of El Salvador who during his time experienced the hardships of political corruption and extreme violence. Romero stood up firmly to affirm the values of the Gospel in a context where life, truth, and justice were blatantly dismissed by several sectors of the Salvadoran society. He walked as a man of faith and an advocate alongside the people of El Salvador, particularly the poor and the most vulnerable. Without a doubt, Romero was a man of the Church.

Romero’s faithfulness ultimately led him to his martyrdom. As a contemporary martyr he speaks not only to the people of El Salvador or the Latin American communities, but also to the entire Church. The archbishop speaks loudly about the pastors that God’s people longs for, pastors who are in intimate communion with the Lord Jesus, who love the Church, and who understand the people they serve; pastors who inspire, pastors who, in the words of Pope Francis, “take on the smell of the sheep” (Evangelii Gaudium, 24). Romero’s voice resounds in the hearts of the Christian community with an invitation to denounce the cultures of death in our midst and announce the truth of the Gospel with prophetic voice. In Romero, the words of Pope Paul VI find fulfillment: our world is more willing to listen to witnesses than to teachers, and if it listens to teachers, it is because they are witnesses (see Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14). During his life many listened to Romero; many more continue to listen to him after his death.

It is fascinating to observe how Romero’s actions and words have inspired numerous interpretations about the life of this Latin American archbishop, his convictions, commitments, and even his influences. Some of those interpretations, in fact, seem to have gotten in the way of officially advancing Romero’s canonization process for several years. Yet we seem to be beyond that impasse. This is where the work of historians and researchers helping us to understand Romero as a man in his time, living in a particular context, is more than welcomed. Comprehensive biographies of Romero, like this one written by Professor Morozzo della Rocca, and current efforts to organize and disseminate Romero’s writings are gifts to the ecclesial community.

Of course, there will be many more interpretations of who Romero was and what he said. This is the power of the witness of those Christian disciples whose lives taught us more about the unending depths of God’s divine mystery. Romero was a man of his time, and from a historical perspective it is good to have clarity about the conditions in which he lived as well as the reasons he made specific decisions inspired by his faith. Yet Romero is also a man of our time because he belongs to the same people for whom he cared so much as a pastor: the people of God. As Pope John Paul II repeated: “Romero is ours.” He belongs to the poor and the afflicted because he loved them with a sincere heart. He belongs to the Church because every time the Christian community searches for inspiration to live out its faith, Romero stands tall in the cloud of witnesses reminding us that it is possible—in fact essential—to feel, to think with the Church (Sentire Cum Ecclesia), as the archbishop martyr’s episcopal motto read.

May the reading of this biography of Archbishop Romero be an invitation to learn more about his life and thought. May it also inspire us to be ever more mindful about the millions of people in the world today who live in circumstances similar to the people of El Salvador during the time of Romero. Finally, may our hearts be moved to remember and support the many pastoral leaders—bishops, priests, deacons, sisters, catechists, missionaries, and countless lay evangelizers—whose hearts, like Romero’s, are moved by the Holy Spirit to witness the truth of the Gospel as they stand for life, truth, and justice.

Hosffman Ospino, PhD

Boston, May 23, 2015

Archbishop Oscar Romero’s Beatification

This extract is taken from the Foreword to Oscar Romero: Prophet of Hope by Roberto Morozzo Della Rocca, published in paperback on August 27, priced £9.99.