Sunday, March 24, 2019

And an anniversary

The Roman Catholic church, St Benedict's, in Clydach is a fairly modern building but it has a number of stained glass windows. On entering I was interested to see that one of the windows commemorated Oscar Romero, a priest in El Salvador who was murdered in 1980 for speaking out against the abuse of human rights.

A statue of Oscar Romero stands in Westminster Abbey and this is what it says on the website:
More and more Romero committed himself to the poor and the persecuted, and he became the catalyst for radical moral prophecy in the church and outside it. Meanwhile, his church began to document the abuse of human rights, and to establish the truth in a country governed by lies, where men and women simply disappeared without account. The press attacked him vehemently. Romero, it was said, allied the church with revolutionaries. This he repudiated: the church was not a political movement. 

In May 1979 he visited the Pope in Rome and presented him with seven dossiers describing the injustices of El Salvador. Threats and dangers against him mounted. On 24th March 1980 he was shot dead while celebrating mass.

I had heard of him and knew a little about him so I took the photo. What I didn't know until I was checking up on my facts is that today, 24th March, is the anniversary of his death and his first feast day since his canonisation in October last year.

2 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

I remember hearing of his assassination at the time on the news. It was very shocking. It essentially put an end to "liberation theology" in South America.

Liz Hinds said...

Indeed, he was unpopular with a lot of the mainstream church because of his left-wing beliefs.