Oscar Romero
Archbishop of the Poor
Life Story of Oscar Romero
Oscar Romero was born August 15, 1917 in Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador to Santos Romero and Guadalupe de Jesus Galdamez. Romero’s father apprenticed Romero as a carpenter at the age of 13. Romero showed great skill at carpentry; however Romero felt a vocation for the Catholic priesthood and left home to go to the seminary. One of Romero’s favorite activities was reading. Romero was a bookworm as you could find him reading about the saints every day. During Romero’s free time, he would be at one of the town’s two Churches mostly. Romero had 6 brothers and sisters whose names were, Gustavo, Zaida, Romulo, Mamerto, Arnoldo, and Gasper. When Romero was 7, Romero was infected with an unknown life threating disease, fortunately he recovered overtime. Romero was influenced to become religious because, he read many books about Roman Catholic history and saints. Another reason was that he was born into a religious family which helped him grow his faith closer to God as his family members taught him about the Catholic religion.
He was a bishop who defended the poor and victims of the repression. He stood up for their rights and went against the army for killing hundreds of innocent people while “looking for weapons”. He said “I do not believe in death without resurrection, if they kill me I will be resurrected in the Salvadorian people”. The reason he said this is because he wanted to give hope to them and make them understand that he will be with them, protecting them. Romero begged for an international convention but everyone turned away, soon the government started to kill thousands of people and just threw the bodies away. Even all the Salvadorian bishops turned their backs on him. They even went as far as sending a secret letter to Rome saying him being “politicized” or looking for attention. The process of his canonization was paused for the beliefs of him having Marxist (communist) ideas. Now that Pope Francis has lifted the ban on the beatification of Oscar Romero the process can continue.
Other things we should know about Oscar Romero is that he supported the rights of the poor. He was unexpected to be elected to the bishop’s episcopacy because he wanted to change things in the church, unlike the conservation bishops. We benefit from his existence because he didn’t want anything to do with the government unless they did certain things for the poor. Because of this he became the enemy of them. We celebrate Oscar Romero with speakers, a mass of commemoration, and a send-off for the members of the Creighton Community. The most important thing about Oscar Romero is that he always cared and supported the poor. He fought for the rights of them. He wanted to change things in the mass and went against the army for innocent people.
Having this quote in the article is saying that he cared for the poor and made peace for them. He changed the Church for the better.
“Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty.”
What is he saying is that when everyone is treated fairly, there is peace.
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