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| San Salvador, March 22, 2015. |
Commemorations
in El Salvador and elsewhere to mark the XXXV Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Archbishop Óscar A. Romero had a distinctly buoyant feel this
year, given the news that Romero will be beatified in May.
In El Salvador,
numerous commemorative events were held starting over the weekend. Since the March 24 anniversary fell during
the week, the main commemoration in San Salvador was held on Saturday
night. Thousands marched in a candlelit
procession from the Divine Savior Monument in West San Salvador to the plaza in
front of the San Salvador Cathedral. The
current San Salvador Archbishop Jose Luis Escobar,
celebrated Mass on a temporary altar on the Cathedral steps before a crowd that
could not fit inside.
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| Ciudad Barrios, March 24, 2015. |
Numerous
memorial Masses were celebrated on the 24th, including a morning Mass
celebrated by a visiting Nicaraguan bishop at the cancer hospital chapel where
Romero was killed. That Mass was
attended by the President of El Salvador and members of his cabinet. Bishop Rodrigo Orlando Cabrera Cuéllar
celebrated a festive mass in Ciudad Barrios, Romero’s hometown, in a
festival-like atmosphere. Visiting
Mexican Bishop Raúl Vera said a small Mass in the Crypt where Romero is buried.
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| San Salvador Cathedral, March 24, 2015. |
The main event
on Tuesday was the Cathedral Mass officiated by visiting Panamanian Cardinal
José Luis Lacunza Maestrojuán, surrounded by an estimated hundred
priests and seminarians, including the Archbishop, the Papal Nuncio and the
Archbishop Emeritus, with a couple of thousand faithful in attendance. Also on the 24th, the Salvadoran Church
announced that all the Cathedrals in the country would simultaneously peel
their bells and their bishops would say Mass (the country is divided into eight
dioceses).
At the
Cathedral Mass, Cardinal Lacunza delighted the crowd, saying that the argument
over Romero’s martyrdom was over. “Roma locuta, causa finita,” the prelate
said, citing the Latin phrase which translates as ‘Rome has spoken, the debate
is closed.’ He said that “Rome has spoken loud and clear: the Church
has declared [Romero] a martyr, due
to hatred of the faith ... Let that be clear,” he added, “Archbishop Romero was sacrilegiously killed
in hatred of the faith.” He recited
the winning argument of the recent beatification process, saying that “Archbishop Romero was neither a
revolutionary, nor a political scientist, nor a sociologist: he was an
evangelizer.” His sermon was often
interrupted by applause. [Spanish audio of sermon.]
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| Los Angeles, March 22, 2015. |
Similar messages
were heard from high ranking clerics elsewhere in the past week. In Los Angeles, Archbishop José Gómez
preached that Romero “showed us that the
Church exists for only one reason — to carry on the mission of Jesus, his
mission to evangelize and save the world. And that mission,” Gómez said, “means the Church must always be a voice for
the voiceless, a defender of the small and weak; a force for love and truth,
dignity and justice — serving the poor and showing God’s mercy to all who
suffer.” [Full text.]
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| London, March 21, 2015. |
In London, Cardinal
Vincent Nichols preached a Saturday homily at St. Martin In The Fields
near Trafalgar Square, stating that Romero died “in holiness of life and for one reason: hatred of the faith, hatred of
Jesus, hatred of the unfailing love of God, shown in Jesus, which has such a
special, preferential place for the poor.”
He added that, “If we truly want
to imitate Oscar Romero and truly follow his example, then we too, every day,
must make the cries of the poor in every part of the world central to our prayer.
This is the most radical action we can take, the most profound response we can
make to poverty in our midst.” [Full text.]
Writing in an
editorial, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput argued
that “Part of Romero's power was his
understanding that the church, by her nature, must be revolutionary in the
truest sense: She seeks, and at her best actually lives, a revolution of
Christian love.” He cited Romero’s
words that the Church seeks “integral
human salvation,” which seeks to save people “in their transcendent dimension and their historical dimension, in
their spiritual dimension and their bodily dimension.” [Link.]
Chaput is
Archbishop of the city that will host the 2015 World Meeting of Families, which
will be attended by Pope Francis and Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the President
of the Pontifical Commission on the Family, and postulator of Archbishop
Romero’s cause. Chaput announced that, “to commemorate Romero’s sacrifice,” the
Hunger and Homelessness Committee
of the World Meeting of Families would spend time this week “visi[ting] shelters, soup kitchens, food pantries, and health clinics, listening
to stories and seeking to understand the personal and social dimensions of
poverty.”
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| Vatican, March 22, 2015. |
A similar
approach was taken by Caritas-Rome, where a commemorative vigil led by Bishop
Matteo Zuppi, and a Romero Mass celebrated by Archbishop Paglia were
included as part of a Week of Charity, with activities targeting such groups as
prisoners and AIDS patients. After Archbishop
Paglia’s mass near the Vatican on Sunday, the faithful processed to St. Peter’s
Square to join Pope Francis’ Angelus prayer.
They carried, among other things, a wooden cross the Pontiff used in his
visit to the island of Lampedusa, to honor immigrants who drowned trying to
reach European shores. “I greet all the pilgrims present,” the
Pope said, and he mentioned various delegations by name, including “the group named after the martyred Bishop
Oscar Romero, who will soon be proclaimed Blessed.”
Romero will be
proclaimed Blessed at a beatification ceremony that was less than sixty days
away on March 24, and which set the expectant and hopeful tone over the somber
date.
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| Fervor in Los Angeles. |
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