BEATIFICATION OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO,
MAY 23, 2015
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| “A Church incarnated in the problems of its People.” |
Horrific news from El Salvador: reports are both alarming and disheartening. This past August, the crime that plagues the
country left more than 900 dead, setting a new record at levels not seen since
the days of the Salvadoran civil war. The
toll hit members of the juvenile-delinquent groups or “maras” the hardest as they continued to eliminate each other in
frightening episodes like the slaughter of 14 gang members in a prison in Quezaltepeque
at the end of the month. The
Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court recently categorized the maras—and their “collaborators” and “apologists”—as
terrorists. In support of this judgment,
the magistrates cited gang activities such as attacks on police stations and
military garrisons, a vast network of extortion that stifles commerce at a
national level, and forces families from their homes and forces more and more
students to drop out of school.
El Salvador
is living through a desperate hour, and everything suggests that this terrible
crisis requires a response that is equally extraordinary if not miraculous. Archbishop Romero was the most dynamic leader
in Salvadoran history and he was also an outstanding peacemaker. He held off the start of the civil war
through his sole and frantic efforts, so that his death unleashed all-out war. Archbishop Romero was, according to the decree
of beatification issued by Pope Francis, a “Heroic witness of the Kingdom of God—Kingdom of justice, brotherhood
and peace.” He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. But the peace of Archbishop Romero was not a
romantic and sugary peace of strolling hand in hand down the boulevard. The Brazilian poet bishop Dom Pedro
Casaldáliga described him well when he called him “Romero of the almost impossible peace”
in a land of conflict. Romero himself speaks of “the peace that could have been and the peace
that has been lost [and] will not be
restored until there is justice.”
That is to
say, Archbishop Romero specialized in hand-crafting peace when there was no raw
material available to do so. If anyone
can teach us how to find peace when all roads seem to be closed off, he is the
one that can give us the inspiration to find solutions and free ourselves from
this impasse in which we find no exits. Moreover,
Archbishop Romero prophesied that we would find ourselves in this stretch at
this time. “What’s coming is going to be terrible,” he told his brother, “no one can stop the war now.” With a chilling vision of the future, he went
on to say, “but the worst thing is what
comes after the war.” In a homily he explained
the reasons: “The names for the violence
will change, but there will always be violence as long as we do not change the
roots that cause this violence and so many other horrible things that occur
daily in our nation.”
To erect a Romero-like
response to these challenges, we might think of the broad appeals to the
various sectors that Romero made, such as the ones at the end of the homily for
March 16, 1980, intended to desperately keep the peace and avoid war.
1.
An appeal to the church.
To proclaim
the “Kingdom of justice, brotherhood and peace.” Imagine that Archbishop Romero were here to denounce
every Sunday not only homicides, but also extortion, forced evictions, etc. If the Christian base communities were
capable of defying death squads, and courageous priests like Rutilio Grande were
able to accompany their flocks amidst the repression of military dictatorships,
the Church can walk shoulder to shoulder with the people to face and overcome
this difficulty, and it has the obligation to join with other churches to
achieve a wider and more effective reach.
I challenge the Church to proclaim during the Jubilee Year of mercy announced
by Pope Francis a year of solidarity in El Salvador, to begin on November 21, Feast
of the Queen of Peace, Patroness of El Salvador, to form the frame for these
seven interpellations.
2.
An appeal to the gangs.
To obey God
and respect the lives and rights of their neighbors. No gang-member “is obliged to obey an order against the law of God. No one has to
fulfill an immoral law. It is time to take back your consciences and to obey
your consciences rather than the orders of sin.” (March 23, 1980 Sermon.) With particular forcefulness we can insist
that “Before an order to kill that a man
may give, God’s law must prevail: THOU SHALT NOT KILL!” And in the name of God and in the name of the
people we can demand, ‘Stop the extortion!’
3.
An appeal to young people.
To imitate
the young Blessed Romero, who was a studious and hardworking young man. Romero said that “The poor and young people constitute the wealth and the hope of the
Church in Latin America.” (February 17, 1980 Sermon.) In the crisis that the
country faced in the 80s, it was the poor who were at the center of the drama. Today is the hour of youth, and the country
needs much of its young people. That
they pray the prayer of Romero: “God help me, prepare me! You are everything, I am nothing. But with Your everything and my nothing, we
can do a lot...” Romero devoted
his youth to forming himself and he became the most important man of his day to
redeem El Salvador, and every young Salvadoran should seek the same today.
4.
An appeal to the rulers.
To join together
and overcome partisan and ideological interests to seek the common good. Anyone who seeks to disregard the great need
of the moment to favor their party or make their opponents look bad will be “performing a sad role of betrayal” of
the people during “such an historic
moment for the nation.” (March 16, 1980 Hom.) The challenge for those in government is to
live a year for the common good, setting aside all electioneering to seek joint
solutions to this uniquely compelling set of problems.
5.
An appeal to law enforcement officials.
To not forget
that the members of the criminal gangs were also created in the image of God,
and that any authority entrusted to you should always be used in service and
not to amass power or seek revenge or engage in social purges.
6.
An appeal to the Salvadoran people.
To reclaim
their country, their culture and society.
Come back to the Church. Soak in
the healthy and correct doctrine and become protagonists of change in your
family, in your neighborhood, in your work.
Retake the schools, the markets, the cultural spaces. “People
who are unorganized are a mass and can be toyed with, but people who are
organized and defend their values and justice are people who must be respected.” (March 2, 1980 Sermon.) They should also receive reformed gang members
with open arms and the merciful love of parents.
7.
An appeal to friends of the Salvadoran people abroad.
To stand in
solidarity with El Salvador, as did many Christians in times of Archbishop
Romero. Encourage the various sectors of
Salvadoran society to seek the common good of the people. Demand that your governments support policies
seeking ways to solve the problems for the short and the long term. Although travel to El Salvador is dangerous
and any plans to visit El Salvador should be consulted in general and in their
details with national and international security experts, El Salvador needs you
more than ever.
* * *
“'Coraggio'
Archbishop Romero used to say in Italian. 'Courage!'.” So Cardinal Amato reminded us during the
beatification ceremony. At the
ceremony we had (albeit fleetingly) a model of the desired social harmony, when
unity prevailed, the spirit of volunteerism reigned, and a large positivism permeated
that historic event, which took place during a weekend without gang murders. Romero shows us how to make it a lasting
reality.
Archbishop Paglia
invited us to convert the Romero episcopal motto, “feeling with the Church” to “feeling
with Romero”, which means “walking
together with him, distancing ourselves from all forms of violence and
practicing love and peace.” And if
we do this we can be sure that “El
Salvador and the world will change.”
I have faith that these seven points hold the keys for striving towards
that transformation.
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