(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother
of Perpetual Help on 4 June 2011)
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today, we shall touch on
Mary’s virtue of charity towards neighbour. Mary hastened into the hill country
to visit Elizabeth. (Luke 1:39-45) Consider how Mary thought nothing of herself;
indeed her needs were secondary to those of her cousin Elizabeth. We next look at Mary at a wedding feast at Cana. (John 2: 1-9) When the wine was gone, she said to Jesus, “They have no more wine.” When Jesus replied that His time has not yet come, His mother proceeded to instruct the servants to do whatever He tells them. At this wedding, Jesus listening to His mother and thereupon changing the water into wine opened the disciples’ hearts to faith, thanks to the intervention of Mary, the first among believers.
I would now like to share on
the life of Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, who emulated the Virgin
Mary’s virtue of charity towards neighbour. He fought for justice, the rights of
the poor and the persecuted church against the “powers there be” in San
Salvador.
Oscar Arnulfo Romero y
Galdamez was born on 15th August 1917 in Ciudad Barrios. Romero went
to a public school for three years after which he was privately tutored until
he was thirteen. He grew up being his father’s apprentice in carpentry and
excelled; his father had wanted him to be skilled in a trade since studies in
San Salvador did not guarantee employment.
Romero was ordained in Rome
on 4th April 1942. He worked at San Miguel for over 20 years. He
promoted various apostolic groups, started an Alcoholics Anonymous group,
helped in the construction of San Miguel’s cathedral and supported devotion to
the Virgin of the Peace. In 1967, he was chosen to be Secretary of the Bishop
Conference for El Salvador. He was known as fairly conservative while editing
for the archdiocesan newspaper Orientacion, defending the traditional Magisterium
of the Catholic Church.
In 1970, he was appointed
auxiliary bishop to the San Salvador Archbishop. He became Bishop of the Diocese
of Santiago de Maria in December 1975. On 23rd February 1977, he was
appointed Archbishop of San Salvador, to the surprise, dismay and even
incredulity of many priests who were aligned with Marxism. They feared that his
conservativeness would negatively affect liberation theology’s commitment to
the poor.
On 12th March, a
progressive Jesuit priest and personal friend Rutilio Grande, who had been
creating self-reliance groups among the poor, was assassinated. His death profoundly affected Romero who later
stated, “…If they have killed him for doing what he did, then I too have to
walk the same path”. Romero urged the government to investigate but was
ignored. Furthermore, the censored press
remained silent.
Eventually, Romero revealed
a radicalism that had not been evident earlier.
He spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and
torture. Consequently, Romero began to
be noticed internationally. In Feb, 1980, he was given an honorary doctorate by
the Catholic University of Leuven. On his visit to Europe to receive this honour,
he met Pope John Paul II and told him that it was problematic to support the
Salvadoran government because it legitimised terror and assassinations.
In 1979, the Revolutionary
Government Junta came to power amidst human rights abuses by paramilitary
right-wing groups and the government. Romero criticised the United States for
giving the government military aid. He warned President Jimmy Carter that the
increased US aid would sharpen the injustice and the repression inflicted on
the organised people, struggling often for their basic human rights.
In Archbishop Romero’s words: “In less
than 3 years, more than 50 priests have been attacked, threatened and
slandered. Six of them are martyrs, having been assassinated; various others
have been tortured, and others expelled from the country. Religious women have
also been the object of persecutions. The archdiocesan radio station, Catholic
educational institutions and Christian religious institutions have been constantly
attacked, menaced, threatened with bombs. Various parish convents have been
sacked.”
Romero was shot on 24th
March 1980 while celebrating Mass at a small chapel located in a hospital, one
day after a sermon where he had called on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians,
to obey God’s higher order and to stop carrying out the government’s repression
and violations of basic human rights. An audio-recording of the Mass showed him
shot while elevating the chalice at the end of the Eucharistic rite.
On 21st December 2010, the
United Nations General Assembly officially recognised the important work and
values of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero.
No comments:
Post a Comment