BEATIFICATION OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO,
MAY 23, 2015
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Duane W.H. Arnold
The Project
It’s hard to believe. It’s
been over three and a half years since I contacted the writer of this blog,
asking if he would be willing to share our music video, “Romero”, on his site. He
watched the video and immediately said, “Yes”.
So began a friendship and a collaboration with Carlos X. that has extended
to the present day.
Now, it’s useful to think back to the beginning of the
relationship and the historical context.
Carlos had already been laboring on his blog for six and a half years,
week by week putting out articles, news and information about Archbishop Romero
and the Cause of his beatification and ultimate canonization. The Romero case seemed to be blocked in the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
People seemed to be more interested in promoting the Extraordinary Form
of the Mass than in pushing the case of a murdered Central American archbishop
who seemed to appeal to only social justice advocates. Worse yet, many of those
advocates were outside the confines of the Roman Catholic Church!
At the time, that was certainly the case with the two members of
The Project that had sent Carlos the music video, “Romero”. I was an Anglican and my colleague, Michael,
was a Methodist. Funnily enough, Carlos
never actually asked us about our faith affiliation when considering posting
the video. For him, it was enough that
we admired Archbishop Romero and that we had created the song and the video to
honor him and to help push forward his cause in a modern socially relevant
manner. The fact that our pronunciation
was less than perfect in the Spanish version of the music video must have
grated on the ear of a native Spanish speaker like Carlos, but he said not a
word. Instead, he welcomed us with open
arms as “fellow travelers” in the cause of Romero.
It was in this very first series of contacts that I began to see
that, in a unique manner, Carlos carried what I can only call “the spirit of
Romero”. It called to mind the pragmatic
and pastoral approach of the Archbishop in his own work and ministry. For example, we can think of how Romero
welcomed the Protestant members of the National Council of Churches as allies
and, indeed, almost as family when they visited El Salvador before his
death. In doing this, he realized that
they could join with him in seeking to quell the violence in his country. They
could assist in the process of calling for social justice and in the need to
“speak truth to power” both in San Salvador and Washington, D.C. This is all to say, Archbishop Romero kept
his focus on ultimate goals and, like Carlos, welcomed those who would walk
with him to reach those goals.
Through the course of the last three and a half years so much has
happened, so much that seemed impossible when we began this journey with
Carlos. The Cause of Romero was
“unblocked”, Pope Benedict resigned his office, Pope Francis was elected, Monseñor
Romero was declared a martyr and, finally, came the beatification. Through all these remarkable events, Carlos
has provided context, commentary and clear headed observations. Translations of homilies, letters and important
documents have been provided. Standing with others, such as the Romero Trust,
Carlos has curated, protected and brought to a larger readership the enduring
legacy of Monsenor Romero. All this, of
course, is known to the readers of this site.
Yet, Carlos has done much that is not known... or known only to a
few. As our music video, “Romero”, grew in popularity and as we engaged in promoting the cause of
Romero, occasionally we received threats or a bit of harassment from
individuals who can only be described as reactionaries. Whenever such an occasion arose, it would be
Carlos on the phone, joking, comforting and encouraging. In the course of time, as my friend Michael,
my wife and I considered coming into the fullness of Catholic faith, Carlos was
there - praying, counseling, answering questions, encouraging us to move
forward. Finally, when a little over two
years we were all received into the Church, a week later a package arrived at
our home. Inside was an old, well-worn
Spanish Bible with a handwritten note.
My
dear brother in Christ Duane,
In
keeping with our tradition of gifting a Bible to new catechumens, I could think
of no more meaningful gift to welcome you to our Church than to give you this
Bible. It was given to my mother in
1985 and passed on to me through her thereafter and has been in my hands until
now...
Carlos continued to describe what this Bible meant to him, why
some passages were underlined and some pages worn. He told of being a refugee, fleeing the civil
war in El Salvador, ending up in exile in the United States, the Bible always
with them. He went on to explain that
the Bible had been given to his mother by a friend named Mila. She had attended Archbishop Romero’s funeral and
her mother-in-law had been one of those who had been killed as a result of the
violence during the funeral. He described another episode, a miraculous healing
of Mila’s husband and how, though all of these tumultuous events, this Bible
had been there. He then continued,
You
might be asking yourself why am I giving you this Bible rather than to keep it
for myself or pass it on to my daughter given its incredible family
history. There’s a multi-part answer to
that. First of all, I give it to you
precisely because it means a lot. I wanted to give you something special
because you are special. Simple as that.
Second, I don’t want to reduce this Bible to the totemistic status of a
memento, or a mere keepsake. I have to
consider that it is the Word of God, whose worth transcends personal property
and belongs to the People of God. Note
that I addressed you as “brother in Christ”, and if that word means anything,
it means that you too are my family and in giving this gift to you, I am
keeping it “in the family”. Third, this
Bible has a history of being gifted from one family to another, so it seems
very natural to pass it on, especially at a time of joy. Fourth and finally,
instead of giving my daughter a family keepsake Bible, I want to tell her one
day that I had this Bible; that it meant so much to me; yet, that I chose to
give it away and explain to her why we must open our hearts and express the
love that is in our souls rather than be bound to material things and
possessions and that is a more valuable gift than just a family heirloom!
“Mila’s Bible” now sits on
my nightstand. It reminds me of El
Salvador. It reminds me of the tumultuous journey of a family fleeing a
war. It reminds me of a grieving
population at the funeral of a murdered prelate. Most of all, however, it reminds me of Carlos
- a friend who in his writing, his work, his life, and in his actions, is
attempting to carry the spirit of Bl. Oscar Romero.
May he carry it forward and, together, may we witness the day of Bl. Romero’s canonization.
May he carry it forward and, together, may we witness the day of Bl. Romero’s canonization.
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