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JUBILEE YEAR for the CENTENNIAL of BLESSED
ROMERO, 2016 — 2017
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| The Nicaraguan bishops lead a popular movement. |
#BlessedRomero #Beatification
While the
Universal Church awaits the date of the canonization of Archbishop Oscar
Romero, who was once accused of meddling in politics, several churches of the Americas
have taken up a proactive role in the politics of their respective nations,
from the abortion policy in Argentina to the immigration policies of Donald
Trump in the USA. The trend appears at a time not only when Romero’s star is on
the rise, but also under a Pope—Francis—who requests greater commitment from his
pastors. Not only are the churchmen highlighted below following in Romero’s footsteps; all of them acknowledge being inspired by him in their struggles, without regard to whether their action is seen to favor the Left (USA, El Salv.) or the Right (Nic., Arg.).
Nicaragua
Perhaps there
is no better example of the Romeroesque Church than the episcopal conference of
Nicaragua, led by Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua and the
audacious auxiliary, Bishop Silvio Baez, who is often compared with Romero, and whose
admirers have pledged to defend and protect him. The entire conference has
taken the lead in Nicaraguan society to remove from power the strongman Daniel
Ortega, the former Sandinista leader who originally came to power to end the
dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in the 70s and is now accused of plotting to
impose his own family dynasty.
The power to
summon of the Nicaraguan Church was made clear when its demonstrations filled
the streets of Managua with an outpouring of humanity that made one think of
the “People Power” of Corazon Aquino against Ferdinand Marcos in the
Philippines of the 1980s. As already mentioned, the auxiliary bishop is a Romeroesque
figure and in fact an open admirer of the martyr from the neighboring country
(El Salvador borders Nicaragua). On several occasions, the Nicaraguan bishops
have alluded to Romero in their statements, and the specter of Romero is never
far from their pronouncements and actions.
Mgr. Silvio Baez cites
Romero as a point of reference for the Central American Church in contemporary
times. He told Religión
Digital: “I would be scared of a
Church that did not have prophets, but woe on those whom the Lord calls to be
prophets in the Church, because the prophets are unwelcome and uncomfortable, even
within the Church,” and he pointed to the fact that Romero was persecuted
and misunderstood during his time as proof of it.
El Salvador
In the land of
Blessed Romero it would be expected that the episcopate would take up his
example. But it has not always been so. In fact, when Pope Francis alluded
to the fact that Romero’s martyrdom was prolonged “even by his brothers in the priesthood and in the episcopate,” many
took it as a rebuke against the Salvadoran bishops (although, not me). However, Romero’s
successor, Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas, has become a true activist, going
as far as to lodge pieces of legislation favored by the Church: this year, against
the privatization of water and last year, against metallic mining, even leading
a march to the legislative assembly for that purpose.
The
exhortations of the archbishop attracted the severe criticism of conservative
circles, as the former president of the National Association of Private
Enterprise (ANEP), Jorge Daboub, lashed out against Escobar Alas on Twitter. “I had not seen such lack of information,
selective blindness and undue ideological influence in the Catholic Church
since civil war times,” said the staunch defender of commercial interests. The
allusion to the positions of the Church during “civil war times” is an obvious reference
to Archbishop Romero without wanting to mention his name—which should be a great tribute to the
current archbishop.
Argentina
In the homeland
of Pope Francis, the “village priests” have taken up the heroic effort to stop
the legalization of abortion. One of them, perhaps the closest to the then
Archbishop Mario Bergoglio, Fr. José María “Pepe” di Paola, has quoted Romero
in an appearance before the congress.
“In Latin America, Archbishop Romero’s famous
cry of 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' still rings out,” Di Paola recalled
in his speech, “as he urged the military
not to repress its own people.” But Di Paola pointed out that it was not
limited to that circumstance, but that “he
directed it also against 'that immense sea of ignominy that kills in the womb
of the mother' (Romero’s words)”. Fr. di Paola
continued: “With the same fervor, in a
homily on March 18, 1979, a year before he was killed, Romero added: ' If we
feel the repression, because it kills our youth and people who are already
grown, it’s the same to take a life in the womb of a woman. That child is a future
adult, who, with abortion, is murdered '.”
According to Di
Paola, the International Monetary Fund and its preconditions for poor countries
to receive financing “has snuffed out the life
of Archbishop Romero and of many children in our America. Especially the deepest
part of America, the silenced part.”
United States
In the great
nation of the north, the bishops have raised their voices against the
immigration policies of Donald J. Trump, and among the chorus of protests
several Romeroesque voices stand out. Perhaps the most outstanding of these is
the Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose H. Gomez, whose profile recalls Romero’s
background. Coming from Opus Dei, Gomez
does not fit the mold of an activist. According to the commentator Thomas J.
Reese, S.J., interviewed
by the LA Times, Gomez is a “classic
pastor”, with a low profile, “he’s a
warm person, he’s personable, he wants to be with his people.”
However, Gomez
has expanded his defense of immigrants, making a pilgrimage to the US-Mexico
border, and celebrating masses in his cathedral dedicated to immigrant
families. “In the Church,” Gomez said
in his pro-migrant homily at the end of June, “we are God’s people, his family. And he gives us the duty to take care
of one another. He calls us to speak out against injustice, to make things
right when they are wrong.”
According to
the LA Times, Gomez “plays an
indispensable role” in the Church on the issue of immigration, and “it would be a big mistake to underestimate
Gomez’s influence.” It would also be a mistake to ignore the devotion that Gomez
has for Blessed Romero, to whom he has dedicated several masses in the
Cathedral of Los Angeles. In a Eucharist for Romero’s Centennial in 2017, Gomez
declared
that Romero inspired him to work for migrants: “In Blessed Oscar’s name,” said
the prelate, “let’s keep pressing for
immigration reform—to keep our families together, to give rights to our
workers, and to open the way to make new citizens for this great land of ours.”
~~~
The spirit of
the slogan that was once seen in graffiti around El Salvador—“Romero
Lives”—now seems to be increasingly
taking hold in his Church.
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