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Friday, December 30, 2011

ICONOCLASM?


The Archdiocese of San Salvador fumbled into controversy on Friday, December 30, 2011, when a work crew unceremoniously took hammers to the colorful facade of the San Salvador Cathedral, in whose crypt Archbishop Romero is buried and which was visited by President Barack Obama earlier this year, and by Pope John Paul II in 1983 and 1996. The decision to destroy the artwork decorating the facade, created by leading Salvadoran artist Fernando Llort was immediately criticized by Llort’s family and foundation, and condemned by the Salvadoran government as the destruction of a national heritage piece (it represented the Salvadoran peace accords, whose 20th anniversary is being celebrated next month).
Photo: Before and after.  What the Llort piece used to look like, and what was left of it after being put to the hammers.
According to Church officials, Llort’s tile mosaic was removed to make way for new decorations featuring the Divine Savior of the World (the Transfigured Jesus—San Salvador’s patron saint) and a bronze statue by an undisclosed artist, with which the Llort tiles did not match. Additionally, Church officials have said that Llort’s tiles were eroded and were coming off. Even to many who would have accepted that explanation (Llort’s tiles were not universally loved), the process did not sit well. Most Salvadorans were surprised when the unannounced plan was implemented on Friday, and the Llort foundation lamented the fact that they were not informed, much less given the opportunity to salvage the artwork. Instead, Llort’s children found themselves rummaging through piles of the shattered fragments of what they insist had been Fernando Llort’s central work.

Oddly, even the Cathedral web site extols the praises of Llort’s frontispiece. “Outside the Cathedral,” the web site boasts, “the facade has attained a very special importance.” The text comments on the specific styles of the facade, chosen for their local cultural significance. “As an element of contrast,” the narrative goes on, “that certainly brings a unique personality to the Cathedral, you can see a large ceramic mural created by Fernando Llort and his workshop ‘The Tree of God,’ which constitutes the most significant point of reference in current Salvadoran art.” Um, it did anyway, until we inexplicably and suddenly smashed it to bits.

To compare the actions to the Taliban’s destruction of the 6th century Buddhas of Bamiyan would certainly be overstating the case, but the example faintly crosses one’s mind as a reference point for a clerical lack of perspective. This is a Church which, as John Paul said during his 1996 visit, is “intimately allied with the joys and hopes of the Salvadoran people.” Archbishop Romero is buried here, and the Crypt where he is entombed was recently called the Sanctuary of the Salvadoran Martyrs. Salvadorans watched the Old Cathedral burn to the ground in 1951, and they have literally had to wash blood off of its steps because of massacres there in the 1980s. It seems the place deserves more reverence.

* * *
Afterword.  On Sunday, January 1, Archbishop Jose Escobar gave the Church's long-awaited explanation for its actions.  After apologizing to Llort for any hurt feelings and offering to have a smaller scale replica of the tiles installed inside the Cathedral, Escobar said that the removal was unplanned, but made necessary after a routine clean up and paint operation revealed that the tiles were irreparably damaged and were falling off, threatening the safety of passersby.  On Tuesday, January 3, Llort held a press conference in which he said he accepted the archbishop's apology, but wanted a detailed technical explanation and the pieces back.  For its part, the Funes government said it was going to court to press to make the Church restore the mural.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

LOS SANTOS INOCENTES


Entre las celebraciones más coloridas de El Salvador figuran los festejos patronales en honor a los Santos Niños Inocentes del municipio de Antiguo Cuscatlán (fotos), que conmemora el pasaje bíblico en el que San Mateo narra la masacre de los niños inocentes por Herodes, para evitar el reinado de Jesús. Cuando Monseñor Romero presidió la celebración el 28 de diciembre de 1977 (oír audio), le quiso dar un toque de autenticidad a una tradición que data de la época colonial.

Mons. Romero comenzó recalcando la reseña histórica del relato de la masacre, señalando como el historiador judío Flavio Josefo, “nos cuenta que Herodes tenía un afán enfermizo de poder y tenía como sospecha de todo el mundo, por eso es que mató a algunos familiares suyos porque sospechaba que le querían quitar el poder; todo lo que era sombra contra su poder daba miedo, y así mandaba a eliminar”. (Ver también “Jesús, aproximación histórica” de José Antonio PAGOLA, en el que comenta que, “La memoria del comportamiento siniestro de Herodes hacia cualquiera que pudiera poner en peligro su poder está, sin duda detrás de la leyenda de la ‘masacre de los inocentes’ en Belén a manos de sus soldados”, edición en inglés, Editorial Convivium,  2011, pág. 34).

Después de direccionar la colorida tradición folclórica “para profundizar en el Evangelio”, Mons. Romero hace su proyección hacia la realidad no solamente del Israel de Flavio Josefo, sino también de El Salvador de 1977. Dando como un adelanto de lo que sería su “última homilía” del 23 de marzo de 1980, en la que declaró que “ningún soldado está obligado a obedecer una orden contra la ley de Dios”, en esta homilía navideña de 1977, Mons. Romero nos predica que, “Cuando un rey manda matar niños, matar gente, los soldados no tienen que obedecer. Es una orden cruel, inmoral, sanguinaria; sin embargo, las espadas serviles matan a los inocentes”. Las palabras de Mons. Romero como que eran también una profecía de las atrocidades que serían cometidas en lugares como El Mozote, donde 130 niños figuraban entre las víctimas de la horrorosa masacre, muchos de ellos matados a golpes y machetazos.

Pero, Mons. Romero, aquel exponente auténtico de la verdadera doctrina de la Iglesia, no podía dejar allí el tema, sino que lo adelantó un nivel más: “¡qué cruel Herodes! ¡qué crueles sus soldados!, pero sabemos que hoy mueren mucho más que aquel pequeño grupo de niños de Belén”, dijo desplazándose hacia otro tema. Mons. Romero comparó la masacre de los Inocentes a la matanza moderna de niños a través del aborto: “el pecado de Herodes se repite hoy también en esos campos donde se prostituye la facultad que Dios ha dado al hombre y a la mujer para engendrar hijos; no para el placer, no para usar de la carne, no como Herodes solamente por el egoísmo; es el rey y los demás le importan nada, aunque sean los propios hijos”. (Ver también PAGOLA, Op. Cit., “Se dice que Augusto, una vez bromeó diciendo que él mejor preferiría ser el cerdo [‘jus’] de Herodes que su hijo [‘juyos’]”.)  “El pecado del aborto es el pecado de Herodes”, advierte Monseñor.

Mons. Romero termina con un motivo alentador, diciendo que de la misma manera que Jesús evadió las intrigas de Herodes, cuando este pretendía frenar su llegada desde niño, “el proyecto de Dios tiene que realizarse a pesar de los estorbos de los hombres, o mejor dicho, valiéndose de los mismos crímenes de los hombres que Dios ocupa también como instrumentos para hacerse sentir en el mundo ... Cristo triunfará”.

Homiliarium

Monday, December 19, 2011

TOP TEN ROMERO STORIES OF 2011
As reprinted in Tim's El Salvador Blog


These were the stories that kept Archbishop Romero in the headlines in 2011, thirty one years after his assassination. Even though there was no news on the canonization front, 2011 was a strong Romero year.

1. OBAMA VISITS ROMERO'S GRAVE

The L.A. Times called Obama’s tribute to Romero, “arguably ... the most dramatic gesture of his swing through Brazil, Chile and El Salvador.” The clamor and clangor of a presidential visit (Obama’s motorcade was said to consist of over thirty cars) led to silence and solemnity as Obama, accompanied by Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes, and Archbishop José Escobar, lit a candle in the Cathedral crypt. Activists fumed that Obama didn’t speak, but the symbolism said it all.

2. NEVER BEFORE SEEN ROMERO PHOTOS SEE THE LIGHT

Four hundred slides of and by Óscar Romero revealed the human side of a man known primarily for his clerical career. Apart from showing competence as a photographer, the pictures reveal Romero’s life-long concern for the poor, whom he presents with “a very special sensibility ... that not every priest is going to have.”

3. CANONIZATION OFFICE PUTS ROMERO WRITINGS ON-LINE

Over six hundred articles and commentaries by Archbishop Romero, written throughout his priestly and episcopal career, were published for the first time on the Internet on the canonization office web site. Like his photographs, Romero’s writings offer a glimpse into his evolving “preferential option for the poor before he was Archbishop of San Salvador.

4. SALVIE PAPER FINGERS SUPPOSED ROMERO SHOOTER

National Guard Deputy Sargeant Marino Samayoa Acosta was the bearded man who pulled the trigger on March 24, 1980, killing the Archbishop of San Salvador, according to Diario CoLatino. The Salvadoran government announced that it “does not rule outconducting an investigation.

5. SALVIE FOREIGN MINISTER MEETS WITH POSTULATOR

About the only glimpse into the secret workings of the beatification drive came when Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martínez called on Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia, the Postulator of the canonization cause, and apparently confirmed that the process is still with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and not yet with the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

6. NEW ROMERO DOCUMENTARY OUT

El cielo abierto” ["The Open Sky"], directed by Mexican filmmaker Everardo Gonzalez, was the latest attempt to tell the Romero story anew. Daily Variety opined that, “this is a solid, moving treatment of a major late-20th century figure, and should see fest[ival] play followed by docu[mentary] channel rotation.”  (Read more.)

7. SPANISH COURT: ROMERO KILLED FOR PROMOTING PEACE

In the cat and mouse moves between a Spanish court investigating the 1989 Jesuit massacre and the Salvadoran military officers accused of having perpetrated it, you might have missed the Court’s finding that the Romero's assassins acted out of fear Romero, as a peace maker, was an affront to their military careers.

8. WIKILEAKS: SALVIE GOV'T TRIED TO POLITICIZE CANONIZATION

Wikileaks revealed that the Salvadoran government had considered supporting the Romero beatification to get the Church to stand down on demanding an investigation of the crime. The leaked Sep. 2007 cable reported that “The [Government of El Salvador] is considering an approach to the Vatican to seek the Holy See’s support for dropping the case from the [Inter-American Commission on Human Rights] without derailing Romero’s beatification.”

9. CARD. TURKSON: ROMERO WAS "GOOD SHEPHERD"

After visiting El Salvador in Nov. 2010, Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana professed “a growing appreciation” of Archbishop Romero. He delivered the Romero Lecture at Notre Dame University in March. “My home country of Ghana was also beset by various types of conflict,” observed the cardinal. “Drawing near to Archbishop Romero … I feel encouraged in my role as as President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and a close-co-worker of the Holy Father.”

10. SALVIE PAPER GETS PRIZE

El Faro’s story last year had tracked down Cpt. Álvaro Saravia, thought to have organized the Romero assassination, in an unknown country, where now he lives in squalor not unlike that of the victims whom Archbishop Romero defended. “The worst misfortune in the world! Poverty!,” Saravia now admited: “How could a man not be a guerrilla if he saw his children dying of hunger?”  Now the article has won a Latin American journalism award.

Previously:

2006 Round-up (Spanish)
Top 10 of 2007
Top 10 of 2008
Top 10 of 2010

Sunday, December 18, 2011

¿PATRIARCA PAGLIA?


Los medios italianos han publicado una especulación de que Mons. Vincenzo Paglia, el postulador de la causa de canonización de Mons. Romero, podría ser nombrado el próximo Patriarca de Venecia. Algunos comentarios se han atrevido hasta hablar de Paglia como un posible “papabile”, ya que tres papas del siglo XX fueron elevados al trono de San Pedro desde la “ciudad de los canales”.

Parece que los rumores sobre la supuesta elevación de Paglia comenzaron luego de que su cercano colaborador, Andrea Riccardi, fuera nombrado ministro sin cartera para la cooperación internacional en el gobierno de Mario Monti. Los dos—Paglia y Riccardi—son líderes del movimiento católico San Egidio, que ha tenido cierta simpatía por la figura de Mons. Romero. Otro miembro de San Egidio, Roberto Morozzo della Rocca, escribió una importante biografía de Mons. Romero que Mons. Paglia entregó al papa, y que el mismo Benedicto reconoció como una importante herramienta para restaurar la figura de Mons. Romero de la politización que la ha deformado, según la jerarquía de la Iglesia.

Además de ser consejero espiritual de San Egidio, Mons. Paglia también es obispo de la diócesis de Terni-Narni-Amelia en Umbría, Italia. También lleva importantes funciones en la conferencia de obispos italianos. En su papel de Obispo de Terni-Narni-Amelia, Mons. Paglia ha recién publicado una carta sobre la navidad 2011. En ella, Paglia escribe: “Es verdad que hemos edificado una sociedad poco justa y poco sana. La riqueza y el bienestar, por ejemplo, no son compartidos igualmente, los derechos humanos no son gozados por todos, los recursos no sirven para garantizar una vida digna del planeta … La opulencia y la abundancia de los pocos se paga, más y más con la miseria de las mayorías”.

Si Paglia es nombrado Patriarca de Venecia no está claro quién lideraría la causa de canonización de Mons. Romero.

Thursday, December 08, 2011

ÓSCAR ROMERO AT EL MOZOTE


«Woe to him who buildeth cities with blood, and foundeth castles with injustice,» cries the prophet (Habakkuk 2:12). A condemnation “against genocide,” preached Archbishop Romero: “The prophet’s words seem to be written for our time.” (October 2, 1977 Sermon.)

It is estimated that 30,000 were killed in El Salvador between 1979 and 1981 (TimelinesDB chronology): “At the peak of the violence in late 1980, the monthly toll of politically motivated murders ran between 700 and 800.” (USLC Country Studies, El Salvador.) Therefore, approximately half of the death toll of the entire 12-year Salvadoran Civil War occurred during those dark years that saw such infamous crimes as the assassination of Monsignor Romero himself in March 1980; the Rio Sumpul massacre of some 300 civilians in May of that year; the rape and murder of the U.S. churchwomen that December; and several other massacres culminating in the El Mozote massacre, of some one thousand peasants from several adjoining hamlets, in December 1981. (SEE TIM’S EL SALVADOR BLOG for an excellent multi-part series on El Mozote.)

Archbishop Romero’s immolation is intimately bound with these massacres in three important respects: (1) Romero sought to be “incarnated” in the suffering of his people; (2) all these deaths have been brushed aside by a corrupt system that would deprive the dignity of their lives by denying them justice; and (3) Romero lives in the historic memory alongside the El Mozote victims, whose memorial reads: “They have not died; they are with us, with you, and with all of humanity.”

Archbishop Romero lived in the era of the massacre. A significant number of the thousands of deaths that occurred during the period were deaths resulting from mass slaughters, including of civilians. A Salvadoran newspaper has estimated that some 6,765 perished in documented massacres—like El Mozote—occurring between 1980 and 1983. Forty four people died at Romero’s funeral after soldiers reportedly fired at the crowd and at the casket. Archbishop Romero put himself in the killers’ sights when he advocated for the victims, publishing results of atrocities compiled by his own Legal Aid Office, staffed by young lawyers and law students. “It would be sad,” he said, “if in a country where murder is being committed so horribly, we were not to find priests among the victims.” (June 30, 1979 Sermon.) Then he added, “They are the testimony of a Church incarnated in the problems of her people.”

Of course, Archbishop Romero faced the same destiny as the victims of El Mozote when he, too, was subjected to an extrajudicial killing intended to silence and subjugate the Salvadoran people. He also shared in the victims’ fate when his murder was shelved by a judicial system determined not to seek the truth or, much less, punishment or redress for the crime. El Salvador passed an Amnesty Law, which “was a clear attempt to keep anyone involved in the murder of Archbishop Romero, the El Mozote Massacre, the murder of the Jesuits, and other crimes against humanity from facing investigations, charges or further publicity.” (Bethany Loberg, El Mozote: Seeking Justice in Spite of the Amnesty Law.)

But, official indifference was overcome by the popular clamor that has raised Archbishop Romero to an international human rights hero. “People around the world draw inspiration from Archbishop Romero,” stated President Barack Obama in a handwritten note in the registry book at Romero’s grave when he visited in 2011. “May we all follow his example in championing social justice and human rights.” In a recent commemoration of the anniversary of the UCA Massacre celebrated at Romero’s grave, the Jesuit provincial called Romero’s crypt the “Sanctuary of the Salvadoran Martyrs,” and the Dean of the Central American University said that it resounds with “the cries of children in El Mozote and the pain of all the massacres, rape, torture and impunity” so that “memory becomes hopeful, transformative identity and ethical potential for building a better society.” (Tojeira, National Sanctuary.)

See also:

March 24 Day of Dignity of Victims/Right to Truth

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

«UN VERDADERO PENTECOSTÉS»


Ya se ha vuelto un lugar común entre nosotros la acusación cotidiana contra la iglesia y sus ministros”, se quejaba Mons. Romero. “En las páginas de la prensa diaria, en campo pagado o en artículos”, decía: “ya no puede hablar un obispo, cumpliendo su deber pastoral, sin que se le tilde de comunista. Ya no puede un sacerdote predicar la justicia social, sin que se le atribuyan tendencias extremistas”. Estos comentarios los hizo hace cuarenta años, precisamente en diciembre de 1971, cuando era todavía obispo auxiliar de San Salvador una década antes de ser arzobispo. (OAR, Defendiendo Intereses, ORIENTACIÓN, Nº. 1247 Pág. 3, domingo 5 de diciembre del 1971, disponible acá.)
FOTO: Ordenación episcopal de Mons. Romero en 1970, con el P. Rutilio Grande, Mons. Luis Chávez y Mons. Arturo Rivera.
Aunque estos años en San Salvador son recordados como un periodo de tendencia conservadora en Mons. Romero, sus publicaciones del año 71 en particular reflejan un verdadero esfuerzo de obedecer el mandato reformista de la conferencia de obispos latinoamericanos en Medellín tres años atrás—la que marcó y definió la “opción preferencial por los pobres” que Romero adoptaría con tanto esmero durante su arzobispado. Medellín, escribe Romero el año 71, debe ser aceptado como “una fuerte invitación a la conversión personal”. (OAR, A tres años de Medellín, ORIENTACIÓN, Nº. 1234 Págs. 3 y 8, domingo 5 de septiembre del 1971.) “Medellín es un verdadero Pentecostés en nuestro Continente”, escribe Romero. Como en el Pentecostés de las Sagradas Escrituras, el Espíritu Santo ha dado una revelación a los obispos del Sínodo de Medellín, dice Romero, para iluminar la realidad latinoamericana: “Cuando el Espíritu de Dios habla, sólo hay una postura correcta: oírlo y ser fiel a sus reclamos”. No hacerlo es “un pecado contra el Espíritu Santo y contra la Iglesia”. (Op. Cit.)

Si bien Romero consideraba a Medellín como una invitación “personal” a la conversión que constituía pecado desobedecerla, entonces la verdadera “conversión” de Mons. Romero se debe empezar a dar desde ese momento. Como predicaría en su arzobispado: “Esta necesidad de conversión ... la vive el Pastor y la predica como una necesidad personal de él ... Créanme, hermanos, que yo quisiera ir adelante de toda esa procesión de conversión que nuestra diócesis está realizando”. (Homilía del 18 de febrero de 1979.) En 1971, el año en que monseñor confiesa sentirse personalmente interpelado a la conversión, escribe varias notas en el semanario de la arquidiócesis que llevan un acento profético:

  • Denuncia el trato que reciben los trabajadores del campo y rechaza los pretextos económicos que interponen los patronos para no mejorar condiciones: “Para nosotros no vale el argumento de que la agricultura no puede soportar las cargas que supone el establecimiento de nuevas prestaciones sociales y un mejoramiento en los salarios de hambre que devengan actualmente nuestros trabajadores del campo”. (OAR, Los campesinos no son parias, ORIENTACIÓN, Nº. 1226 Págs. 3 y 6, domingo 4 de julio de 1971). Manifiesta que “el desarrollo de nuestros recursos es poco menos que inútil si sólo va a beneficiar a un grupo privilegiado de salvadoreños, sin abarcar a todo el hombre y a todos los habitantes de nuestra tierra”. (Op. Cit.)

  • En otra nota vuelve a tratar el tema. (OAR, Soluciones humanas, ORIENTACIÓN, Nº. 1241 Págs. 3 y 6, domingo 24 de octubre de 1971). Aparentemente los comerciantes habían respondido, argumentando reducciones en los precios de los productos agrícolas, y Mons. Romero de nuevo rechaza los argumentos: “En los negocios no siempre se gana ... Esto no quiere decir que cualquier empresa, para obtener ganancias, en lugar de pérdidas, va a sacrificar a sus empleados o a sus obreros”. Y amonesta: “El trabajador no es una mercancía, sujeta a los vaivenes de la economía, sino que una persona humana, que por el sólo hecho de serlo, tiene derecho a un salario justo, suficiente para cubrir sus necesidades materiales y culturales”. Finalmente, interpela, “Seamos conscientes. Seamos humanos. Seamos cristianos. La empresa se ha hecho para el hombre y no el hombre para la empresa”. (Op. Cit.)

  • Denuncia que “el 73 por ciento de los niños menores de cinco años son desnutridos” y que “la solución integral a este problema aterrador, solo se encuentra en la superación de nuestra condición socio-económica”. (A tres años ... Supra.) “¿No es un hecho espeluznante y una realidad trágica la que atraviesa la niñez salvadoreña?”, se pregunta, “¿No se conmueven los corazones de los ‘satisfechos’ que no quieren cambios de ninguna clase? ¿Seguirán llamando comunista a los discípulos de Cristo que, como su divino Maestro, sienten compasión por estas muchedumbres hambrientas y quieren remediar la situación de miseria que padecen?” Agrega, “Y no se trata simplemente de dar, como limosna, las migajas que sobran de nuestra mesa. Debemos”, escribe, “salvar a todos los hombres y a todo el hombre, en cuerpo y alma, atendiendo a sus necesidades materiales y espirituales, pero de manera especial a los niños”. (Op. Cit.)

 Para fines del año, ya estaba sintetizando como una gran tesis: “Es un hecho incontrovertible que una porción mayoritaria de nuestra población vive en la miseria material espiritual y moral”, escribe. (Defendiendo Intereses, supra.) “Negarlo sería cerrar los ojos a la realidad o pretender tapar el sol con la palma de la mano”. Después profundiza que la Iglesia no es “enemiga de los ricos. Pero no puede constituirse en defensora de sus intereses, ni puede traicionar su misión de liberación evangélica. Por esto no puede callar, ni permanecer como simple espectadora indiferente a la vista de la injusticia y de la indigencia que parecen los pobres, los predilectos de Cristo”. (Op. Cit.)

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

ADVENT FOR ROMERO


More and more, people are talking about Óscar Romero. It is almost impossible to keep track of the different forums, good and bad. Most of all, it’s interesting to hear what is said in Church circles, and in recent days, the San Salvador Church has been talking up Romero in a tone that is more confident and uplifting than it had been previously. In the lead editorial in the archdiocesan newspaper Orientación, Vicar General Jesús Delgado Acevedo, draws upon the language of Isaiah 40 to present Archbishop Romero no longer as a prophet whose denunciations divide his listeners, but as the sainted Herald of Advent, who draws the people together:
The herald brings good news of liberation. He is a prophet who puts aside his attitude of denunciation, and assumes the role of an evangelizer. He now announces the Good News. He can whisper in your ear, he can say his word in a hushed tone, with love: He is speaking from the high mountain where the temple of God is found. He speaks in the name of God. His voice is heard in all directions and horizons of the earth: Archbishop Romero.

From heaven, the shepherd announces the arrival of God who comes back to dwell in the midst of a large family: the Salvadoran people ... The whole city is his. The hitherto unknown San Salvador, has become the capital of the world for all who seek justice and work for a fraternal society. From all corners of the earth, they come to pay tribute in gratitude, to the crypt in the temple of the city of God, to the herald of peace.

From the crypt of the San Salvador Cathedral, we hear a cry of love that says, «Behold your God!» He is the Savior ... The seed of salvation is planted in the crypt. The faithful of San Salvador and pilgrims from all over the world come to water it with tears of hope. Obama himself did the same, shedding the pomp of presidential power in the world to recognize with the simple heart of a grateful man, the greatness of one fallen in the battlefield of love and justice.

The message of the prophet Isaiah ends today with eloquent words: «He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.» (Isaiah 40:11) The figure of David, in the mind of the prophet becomes the figure of Romero in the heart of Salvadorans. Soon, we will be a people!
(Orientación, Year LVIX Nº 5691, Dec. 4, 2011.)

Even the Archbishop of San Salvador was speaking up about Romero. Archbishop José Luis Escobar was asked about a rumor that the conservative mayor of San Salvador was planning to change the name of a street named for Romero to the name of a founding father. Even though he was taken by surprise by information that later was denied by the mayor, the usually guarded archbishop let it be known that the information, if true, “is definitely not going to please the Church.”  (Op. Cit.) He added, “for us it is very important that Archbishop Romero have a street dedicated to him—not just as a church, but as a nation.” Msgr. Escobar warned that such a change would be provocative and lead to conflict: “of course, as the Church, we will not agree with it, and I would say that a great part of the Salvadoran people would not agree with it.”  (Id.)

Hark!, the Herald Angel sings ...

Sunday, December 04, 2011

«AQUELLOS DICIEMBRES»
Mons. Romero añora la auténtica navidad


(Mons. Romero, Orientación, 17 de diciembre de 1978.)

Acerca de la celebración de la navidad, muchos cristianos están haciendo hoy precisamente lo contrario de lo que hicieron los cristianos de ayer.


El cristianismo antiguo logró, con la celebración de la navidad, cristianizar la fiesta pagana del sol. En cambio el neopaganismo de los cristianos de hoy está logrando paganizar la navidad cristiana. Jesús no nació precisamente el 25 de diciembre. La liturgia cristiana señaló esa fecha para darle un sentido cristiano a la fiesta romana del ‘Sol invicto’; los paganos de aquel imperio celebraban como el nacimiento del sol en la noche más larga del año. Aquella medianoche era considerada como el punto de partida de la marcha del sol que comenzaba a dominar las tinieblas. Resultó fácil para los cristianos cambiar el sol por Jesucristo, y hacer coincidir litúrgicamente el nacimiento de Cristo, ‘sol de justicia’, con la celebración pagana del nacimiento de sol […].


Lástima que toda esa inspiración cristiana con que nuestra liturgia bautizó una festividad pagana haya sido traicionada por muchos cristianos que hoy entregan al paganismo aquella victoria espiritual. Porque no es otra cosa que una cobarde capitulación de los cristianos al hacer prevalecer sobre el sentido evangélico de la navidad los valores del comercio y de las alegrías mundanas.

Ver también

Navidad de los Pobres

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

TABOO MURAL INSERTS ARCHBISHOP ROMERO
INTO SALVADORAN INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE


Some works of art are revolting because of the subject matter they depict. An ancient Roman inscription showing the Crucified Jesus with a horse’s head was so offensive to Christians that it was labeled the «graffito blasfemo». A mural commemorating the bicentennial of the Central American “Cry for Independence” unveiled in San Salvador has raised howls because it depicts Archbishop Óscar Romero alongside the man widely believed to have ordered his assassination—Roberto D’Aubuisson (click here for detail). Oddly enough, the protests have come from D’Aubuisson’s sympathizers, in a row that reveals a lot about the politics of Archbishop Romero’s image in El Salvador.

The mural, entitled “200 years of struggle for emancipation in El Salvador,” was commissioned by the Salvadoran Culture Ministry to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the movement that led to El Salvador’s independence. The mural, created by Salvadoran artist Antonio Bonilla, recalls the scale and spirit of the murals commissioned in the U.S. by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression—especially, the works of Diego Rivera. In the mural, Bonilla posits, as the name of his work suggests, that the independence movement was not a discrete historical event that occurred 200 years ago, but a process that has occupied El Salvador for the past two centuries, and is still underway. Thus, the mural includes scenes of El Salvador’s founding fathers ringing their liberty bell, but also includes images of a 1932 peasant uprising, of the 1989 Jesuit Massacre, and of Archbishop Romero, in a polyptych (a work of art that is divided into sections, or panels) resembling an altarpiece with contrasting motifs: pre-Columbian and colonial themes, tradition and innovation, protest and repression.

The work’s principal critic—at least, the one to publicly come forth—is the retired colonel, Sigifredo Ochoa Pérez, a man of the right. Ochoa Pérez was himself a schoolmate of Roberto D’Aubuisson, and also was accused of complicity in a wartime massacre. Although he now stands as a candidate for the national legislature for the party that D’Aubuisson founded, Ochoa Pérez traditionally was aligned with a party even further to the right, and he broke ranks with the establishment in 1989 to finger higher ups who may have ordered the Jesuit Massacre. More recently, however, he sided with the Honduran government that overthrew the democratically elected populist president.  “It’s a pity, because Antonio Bonilla is an excellent artist,” Ochoa Pérez told a Salvadoran paper. “I think he betrayed his ideological preferences,” Ochoa Pérez continued. “He painted with his left hand.” But what Ochoa Pérez objected to was really not the mural’s POV, which equates leftwing uprisings to the founders. “He made a mockery of our brothers in the armed forces,” Ochoa Pérez lamented, “and also of a man who had his warts like any other leader as is Roberto D’Aubuisson, depicting him in such a grotesque way in the mural.”

For his part, Bonilla defends the depiction of D’Aubuisson alongside Archbishop Romero, as an image of reconciliation—the juxtaposition of the lion and the lamb. In fact, for Bonilla, that image was not simply an act of provocation, a grenade lobbed at museum goers. It was a carefully planned composition. A video of the mural’s creation shows Bonilla methodically painting Romero before any other figure, and using a photograph to ensure accuracy, whereas all the other figures are painted freehand, as if by painting an accurate Romero, he could inoculate himself against any other falsehood. And though the right may not like Romero’s newfound prominence, they seem to begrudgingly accept it, as when the ARENA mayor of San Salvador quieted fears that he was planning to change the name of a street named after Archbishop Romero to the name of one of the founding fathers. It turns out that Archbishop Romero has his own place within the bicentennial of El Salvador’s struggle for emancipation.

More:

Romero in Art

Sunday, November 27, 2011

MONSEÑOR ROMERO Y YO


Yo a penas llegué a conocer a monseñor Romero. Como en las viejas películas de “Ben-Hur” en que los héroes se encuentran por casualidad con Jesucristo en una escena melodramática que tiene poco que ver con la historia del film, llegué a rosarme con monseñor en episodios breves y transitorios de mi niñez. Pero algún día, si Dios me lo concede, podré atestiguar ante generaciones que no lo conocieron, de que sí lo vi, aunque a penas logré hacerlo.

Nuestra coincidencia en este “valle de lágrimas” fue un parpadear de ojos. Cuando yo nací en 1968, a monseñor ya solo le quedaba poco más de once años en su peregrinación sobre esta tierra. Y cuando él llegó a ser arzobispo de San Salvador, que fué la primera vez que pasó por mi conocimiento, a mi ya solo me quedaba año y medio en el país. Pero, su impacto fue tremendo, desde un principio.

Bien me acuerdo de la primera vez que ví su foto, en blanco y negro, en el “Diario De Hoy”, en 1977, cuando fue elevado a arzobispo de San Salvador . Leí la entrevista, y le seguí sus primeros y dramáticos pasos a través de la radio, oyendo sus impresionantes homilías dominicales, como el resto de la nación. Mi abuelita que me crió me llevaba a catedral en las fechas más importantes del calendario litúrgico, como la navidad, semana santa, y el día de la transfiguración del Divino Salvador.

Fue en este marco que presencié su apostolado profético en horas tan culminantes de su ministerio público. Fue en 1977 que asesinaron al padre Rutilio Grande, y al padre Alfonso Navarro unos meses después. Me acuerdo de asistir a catedral un sábado de gloria y observar una fogata de los Boy Scouts en la Plaza Barrios. Me acuerdo ver a monseñor Romero y algunos de sus sacerdotes en procesión alrededor del interior de la catedral, perfumando el templo con incienso, y rociándolo con agua bendita mientras que la feligresía cantaba, “Ya el Señor resucitó/Resucitó ya el Señor.” Me acuerdo ver camiones con soldados alrededor de la plaza y pensar que ellos estaban allí para participar en la misa, tal vez dando protección al rebaño de los fieles. Nunca se me ocurrió a mis nueve años de edad que sería más siniestra su presencia.

Pero, mis memorias más íntimas, y sacrosantas de monseñor Romero fueron encuentros más cercanos, aunque todos fuesen pasajes instantáneos. Son tres episodios los que prevalecen sobre todos los otros, y que han quedado grabados en mi recuerdo para siempre. Una vez, entró monseñor Romero, sin aviso por adelantado, a una misa que yo asistía con mi abuela en la Iglesia de San Esteban, en el barrio del mismo nombre. Ya que la misa había empezado, lo anunciaron con un parlante portátil desde atrás del templo, donde según me acuerdo, el iba llegando en un carro. Entró por la nave principal de la iglesia, con una casulla verde y su mitra episcopal, bendiciendo y saludando a los allí presentes, y pasando directamente enfrente de mí. Aunque fue ligero el momento, hoy me quedo impresionado de que San Esteban fue el primer mártir de la cristiandad. Para mí fue como un signo y una bendición vivir esa coincidencia.

En otra ocasión, habíamos ido mi abuelita y yo a la misa en la catedral, y al salir de la iglesia, vimos que monseñor Romero estaba saludando a la gente en las gradas de la iglesia, ante la Plaza Barrios. Aprovechando de un campito que se abrió en los gentíos que lo rodeaban, en un instante en que no había nadie, mi abuelita se le acercó y se arrodilló ante él para besarle su anillo. En ese momento el la coronó con una bendición pontífica. Por ser un poco tímido, yo no me acerqué mucho a él, pero mejor me quedé a un lado apreciando ese beatífico escenario. Para mí, mi abuela y Monseñor Romero han sido mis padres espirituales, y ese marco se me figura un retrato familiar.

El tercero encuentro es el más íntimo, pero en ciertos aspectos, también el más imprescindible y elusivo. Estábamos otra vez en catedral, posiblemente el mismo sábado de gloria indicado anteriormente. Entré a un vestíbulo con el motivo de confesarme. Hay un empañamiento del hecho, un misterio, que se envuelve con el misticismo y el espiritualismo del momento para convertir al episodio a algo más allá de la historia, y del tiempo. ¡Pero, al oír esa voz inconfundible, quedé con la indudable certidumbre de que monseñor Romero era mi confesor! Me acuerdo que sus preguntas me impresionaron por la falta de formalidad, de austeridad en su estilo de platicar conmigo: En vez de recitar las frases repetitivas de una confesión formal, me preguntó de qué parroquia venía, y otras cosas que no eran estrictamente parte de la obligada o acostumbrada revisión. Aunque sí estuve seguro de quien era, tomo cierto deleite en poder dudar si era él, porque le añade a la mística del momento, y verdaderamente, a la persistencia sobrenatural de su presencia en nuestras vidas. Monseñor Romero fue un ser espiritual, cuya presencia en la historia no se explica con la regla estéril de la ciencia, o la ciencia política, o la teología social. Fue una fuerza espiritual, como la sombra de Dios que flotaba sobre nuestro suelo.

Después de mi salida de El Salvador en 1978, seguí oyendo la voz del profeta gritándome al oído. En primer lugar, mi abuelita me mandaba cassettes con sus sermones, junto con la semita y el quesito “capa-roja” que me hacían sentirme en mi lugar cuando no lo estaba. En noviembre de 1979, me acuerdo de ver una noticia en la televisión hispana de que esperaban a monseñor Romero en Nueva Jersey . Resulta que estaba de llegar, pero tuvo que cancelar el viaje al último minuto, debido a que la situación siempre inestable de la vida nacional salvadoreña. En la catedral de San Patricio de Nueva York , donde esperaban que celebrara una misa, se reunió la comunidad que solo se quedó con las ganas de verlo.

En marzo de 1980, yo asistía al quinto grado en una escuela en Queens, Nueva York. La mayoría de los niños eran Afro-Americanos, y los únicos hispanos en mi clase eran de Puerto Rico y de Sudamérica. En el quinto grado, tenía un profesor muy estricto, un señor judío, con una barba gris, y cabeza calva y aceitada, llamado Mister Spatz. Mister Spatz me humillaba al dirigirme instrucciones en inglés, ordenándome a llevarle ciertos útiles, y yo le llevaba los equivocados. Su intención era a enseñarme el inglés, pero las carcajadas y las burlas de los otros alumnos solo me confundían más de lo que pudiese aprender.

El cuarto lunes de ese marzo, Mister Spatz me notó muy deprimido, y con bajos espíritus. Estuve muy callado todo el día y mi concentración estaba distraída. El día siguiente era el 25 de marzo y ahora Mister Spatz había entendido el por qué de mi depresión el día anterior (aunque yo no me había enterado sobre el asesinato de Mons. Romero hasta el siguiente día), y me expresó su pésame por la tragedia que indignó a todo el mundo.  La bala que perforó el tórax de Mons. Romero me partió a mí el corazón, y he estado desde entonces tratando de rellenar la brecha, lo que da impulso a este blog.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

ÓSCAR ROMERO’S THANKSGIVING


It is easy enough to give thanks for good and pleasant things, that we readily count as blessings. At the end of the first year of his ministry, Archbishop Romero reminded us (full text) also to be thankful for the trials and hardships that make us stronger, and to pray for those who test us.
This is the act of thanksgiving that we offer on this night as we conclude this year: we gather together and offer all the pain and suffering and injustice and abuse. As was said in our newspaper Orientación … we have perhaps lived the most tragic year in our history, yet for the Church this has been the most fertile and productive year ...
Let us give thanks to God for beneath the cross of 1977 we have seen the flourishing of seeds of hope and renewal and conversion and new vocations and faith. How many people have come to the Church and said that they had lost their faith, but thanks to the cross of 1977 they have recovered their faith! Yes it is also true that many people have distanced themselves from the Church. Those people separated themselves from the Church who had to be separated—like leaves of the tree that have changed color and are no longer able to withstand the strong winds ...
Let us give thanks to God, yes let us give thanks even for those offenses and insults, for just as the bloodied and beaten Jesus turned toward his Father and said: Father, forgive them, they know not what they do, so too this voice of Jesus during his passion has become the voice of the Church—the voice that asks for mercy for those who have offended her.
There is another reason to give thanks to God: the way in which we have tried to be faithful to the gospel and to the holy spouse of the Church, Jesus Christ. The Church has been very clear about her program: to be faithful to the gospel and in light of the gospel to analyze her life, her social relationships and her place in the world. Those things that can withstand the light of the gospel are authentic. The happiness of the children of the Church is true happiness when it is rooted in the gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ who said: Blessed are those whose hearts are freed from the prisons of wealth, of selfishness, of hatred, and of rancor ...
At a time when we have seen so much bloodshed and hatred and evil may we call upon Mary to give us a new year and a new humanity. May the hearts of people be renewed. May the pains of conversion become pains of hope and the pain of the cross become a cross that redeems ... May all these criminal hands that have spilled so much blood be converted! May their pain be converted into repentance and may they become the builders of a better world ...

Monday, November 21, 2011

DIECI RAGIONI IL PAPA BENEDETTO
DOVREBBE BEATIFICARE A OSCAR ROMERO


10. Perché è la cosa giusta da fare. Lo stesso Benedetto ha detto che Romero merita beatificazione, e Giovanni Paolo II ha pregato sulla tomba di Romero e ha detto che è sicuro che egli intercede per la Chiesa.
Foto: Il Papa con Mons. Vincenzo Paglia, postulatore della causa della canonizzazione di Mons. Romero.
9. Perché sarà una decisione popolare. Altri gruppi cristiani e anche i non credenti si congratulerà con la Chiesa sulla nuova aggiunta al suo «roster» di santi.

8. Come quando Nixon andò in Cina, avrà maggiore significato se questo papa lo fa. La beatificazione di Romero sarebbe il terzo e più splendido capitolo dell insegnamento di Ratzinger sulla Teologia della Liberazione.

7. Perché si attrarrà i progressisti disillusi nuovamente dentro la Chiesa. Benedetto guarirà la spaccatura a sinistra come lui sta cercando di fare con la FSSPX.

6. Si salverà Romero per la chiesa. La strumentalizzazione dell'immagine di Romero si nutre della percezione che la Chiesa lo ha abbandonato. Questo finirà se la Chiesa lo recupera definitivamente.

5. Perché aiuterà il processo di riconciliazione di El Salvador. Il paese è a un bivio, con un alto tasso di criminalità e di polarizzazione. La beatificazione di Romero sarebbe alzare il morale.

4. Perché sarà fonte di ispirazione per i vescovi del mondo. Il modo in cui Giovanni Paolo II ha descritto il vescovo modello nella «Pastores Gregis» suona molto come Romero. La sua beatificazione fornirebbe un modello di lavoro.

3. Perché sarà un balsamo per gli emarginati. I poveri in tutto il mondo capiranno che la Chiesa non offre solo elemosine, ma è interessata a condizioni che impattano la loro integrale benessere.

2. Perché sarà il patrono della Dottrina Sociale della Chiesa. Il Papa Benedetto ha richiesto santi e martiri per la giustizia cristiana e non ci sarebbe stato esemplare più grande di Romero.

1. Perché sarà un martire per il secolo XXI. Con la beatificazione di un martire con del calibro di Romero, la Chiesa sarà una Chiesa di martiri di nuovo all'inizio di questo millennio.


Note in Italiano in questo blog:


Romero e i Papi: Giovanni Paolo I
Romero e i Papi: Benedetto XV
Obama visita tomba di Romero
Il padre Rutilio Grande
Nuovo concetto di Romero

Sunday, November 20, 2011

SUPPLEMENTUM



PASTORAL LETTERS/
CARTAS PASTORALES

Ñ = ESPAÑOL (texto de homilía)
E = ENGLISH (text of homily)
A = AUDIO (de homilía en español)
£ = LITURGY (readings in English)


La Iglesia de la Pascua
(The Church of Easter)
4/17/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
La Iglesia, Cuerpo de Cristo en la Historia
(The Church, the Body of Christ in History)
8/6/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Misión de la Iglesia en Medio de la Crísis del País
(The Church's Mission in the Midst of the Nation's Crisis)
8/6/1979
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Misión de la Iglesia en Medio de la Crísis del País
(The Church's Mission in the Midst of the Nation's Crisis)
10/21/1979
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]

MENSAJES ESPECIALES/
SPECIAL MESSAGES

A las Comunidades Neocatecumenales
(To the Neocatechumenal Communities)
11/22/1979
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
A las Madres de los Desaparecidos
(To the Mothers of the Disappeared)
12/1/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
A los Maestros
(To the Teachers)
6/22/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
A los Maestros
(To the Teachers)
6/22/1979
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
A los Trabajadores
(To the Workers)
5/1/1979
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]

MEMORIAL MASSES/
MISAS POR DIFUNTOS
P. Ernesto Barrera Motto11/29/1978
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Ing. Mauricio Borgonovo5/11/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
P. Rutilio Grande García3/14/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Misa Única (P. Grande)3/20/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
1° Aniv., P. Grande3/5/1978
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Ioannes Paulum, PP.10/3/1978
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
P. Alirio Napoleón Macías8/5/1979
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Carlos Molina Cañas11/14/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
P. Alfonso Navarro Oviedo5/12/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
1° Aniv. P. Navarro5/11/1978
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
P. Octavio Ortíz Luna1/21/1979
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
P. Rafael Palacios6/21/1979
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Nov., P. Palacios6/30/1979
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
30 d., P. Palacios7/20/1979
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]

VISITAS PASTORALES/
PASTORAL VISITS

Aguilares6/19/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Antiguo Cuscatlán12/28/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Apopa11/25/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Citalá12/5/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Chalatenango9/24/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
El Paisnal11/1/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Huizúcar9/29/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
La Libertad12/8/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Planes de Renderos5/15/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Quezaltepeque12/19/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
San José Villanueva12/17/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Santa Tecla7/16/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]

IGLESIAS SAN SALVADOR/
SAN SALVADOR CHURCHES

Divina Providencia3/24/1980
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
El Rosario4/16/1978
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
María Auxiliadora5/28/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Sagrado Corazón3/1/1980
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]

MISC.

La Virgen de Guadalupe
(The Virgin of Guadalupe)
12/12/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Asunción de la Virgen
(Assumption of the Virgin)
8/15/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Ordenación Sacerdotal
(Priestly Ordination)
12/10/1977
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]
Honoris Causa/Georgetown Univ.2/14/1978
[Ñ] - [E] - [A] - [£]


¡Viva Cristo Rey!

Monday, November 14, 2011

VICEDECANO DEL COLEGIO DE CARDENALES
PIDE BEATIFICACIÓN DE MONS. ROMERO


El vicedecano del Colegio de Cardenales, el purpurado francés Roger Etchegaray, se ha pronunciado a favor de la beatificación de Mons. Romero, según reporta LA STAMPA de Italia. “Verdaderamente espero que Romero pronto sea beatificado por la Iglesia Católica”, el prelado dijo durante una visita a la iglesia de San Bartolomeo en Roma, donde se guarda un memorial a los mártires del siglo XX. El cardenal Etchegaray es un clérigo de alto rango en el Vaticano, que sufrió fuertes lesiones durante un ataque al Papa Benedicto XVI por una mujer trastornada durante la misa de Navidad en la Basílica de San Pedro (FOTO). Anteriormente, Etchegaray había sido el enviado del Beato Juan Pablo II para frenar la guerra en contra de Iraq, y ha sostenido altos nombramientos en la curia romana.

La memoria de Romero siempre está aquí”, dijo Etchegaray, en referencia a una reliquia del mártir salvadoreño que se conserva en la iglesia, localizada en una isla del río Tíber. “Lo llegué a conocer bastante bien”, dijo el cardenal que también ha sido presidente de dos consejos pontífices (que asesoran al papa)—el Pontificio Consejo Justicia y Paz y el «Cor Unum». “Yo era Arzobispo de Marsella cuando él dejo a Roma para regresar a su patria y este fue su último y difícil viaje” (que incluyó la última entrevista con Juan Pablo II en febrero de 1980). Continuó el prelado, “También he ido al lugar donde fue asesinado a celebrar la misa. Verdaderamente espero que pronto sea beatificado por la Iglesia Católica”.

La esperanza expresada por el cardenal Etchegaray encaja con el comentario de monseñor Giampaolo Crepaldi en la presentación del Tercer Informe sobre la Doctrina Social de la Iglesia en el mundo, quien recordaba que el papa Benedicto ha deseado que hayan mártires que ayuden a promover la doctrina social de la Iglesia. Monseñor Crepaldi recordaba “cómo Benedicto XVI, en Inglaterra y en Portugal, insistió mucho en pedir formas de testimonio extremopodríamos decirtambién en el campo de la Doctrina social”.

En otra ocasión, el cardenal Etchegaray ha comentado que, “De por sí Romero no sentía ninguna vocación a la política, pero consideró que era su deber hablar alto y fuerte a favor de la paz, de la justicia, de la reconciliación. No se comprometió con ningún partido político, aunque buscaba afanosamente soluciones políticas cuando el país se precipitaba hacia la guerra civil, procurando siempre atenerse en todo al magisterio de la Iglesia”.

Antecedentes:

Doce cardenales simpatizantes

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

10 FICTIONS ABOUT ÓSCAR ROMERO


Good information is hard to find and, in this media age in which digital information is widely disseminated and consumed, Mark Twain’s musing has literally come true: a falsehood “can go halfway `round the world before truth gets its pants on.” Here are the ten false facts about Archbishop Romero that we run across most often.

Part I: Honest Mistakes

10. Archbishop Romero was killed at the Cathedral. Perhaps spurred by works such as Mario Bencastro’s “A Shot in the Cathedral” (a fictionalized work based on the Romero assassination), itself a reference to T. S. Eliot’s “Murder in the Cathedral” (about the assassination of Thomas Becket) and by cinematic depictions such as Oliver Stone’s “Salvador,” the location of Archbishop Romero’s assassination is often misstated. It is a natural mistake, since Romero was, in fact killed saying mass, and archbishops usually say mass in their Cathedral (and the Cathedral is a pretty dramatic locale, particularly on the big screen). Other variations of the mistake have Romero killed at the steps of the Cathedral, or during the famous sermon in which he commands the military to “Stop the Repression.” In fact, he was killed in a more low-key setting, saying Mass in the chapel of a cancer hospital on a Monday evening.

9. Prophets of a Future not Our Own. For some mysterious reason, this verse came to be known as “The Romero Prayer.” Bishop Thomas Gumbleton explains that, “The mystery is that the words of the prayer are attributed to Oscar Romero, but they were never spoken by him.” Bishop Gumbleton goes on to explain that the “prayer” was drafted by Bishop Kent Untener for a Mass given by John Cardinal Dearden in November of 1979. “They come from a homily he gave at a Mass for deceased priests.” It has elsewhere been supposed that if the prayer is not “his own,” it does belong to Romero in other ways: “It's his because it would not have the same weight or power that it does in association with him. Also, it's his in the way it seems to fit so naturally his call to service, his ideas.”

8. The Romero family was very poor. Again, the idea that the defender of the poor came from the extreme poverty that he would rise above and defend is alluring, “but that’s false,” says Archbishop Romero’s brother. “My father was from Jocoro (Morazán) and they transferred him to Ciudad Barrios because of his work as a telegrapher; my mother was a teacher,” Don Gaspar explains. Romero and his siblings grew up to become professionals—Gaspar worked in middle management in the state telephone company. “Ours was a modest home, without luxury, but we were not poor. Our home was in the very center of town, and we had coffee growing lands.” Romero’s childhood portrait reveals his family’s relative comfort—no one familiar with poverty in El Salvador would mistake this with an image of the marginalized poor.

7. Romero was shy. The movie “Romero” popularized the view of pre-San Salvador Romero as a bookish introvert. Raul Julia (photo), a large force on the screen, plays a timid, almost cowering Romero. As one critic has stated it, it is “unlikely that Romero was as timid and organizationally inept as he is portrayed in the film.” That critic reasoned, “Timid persons do not get named archbishop anywhere!” In fact, Romero had been a star broadcaster, holding radio audiences in rapt attention since his days as a priest in San Miguel, and he was controversial and outspoken during all of his episcopal career, as much a nuisance to the Left-leaning in the early part of the seventies as he would be to rightwingers after the end of that decade.

Part II: Defamations from the Right

6. Archbishop Romero supported/agitated for armed struggle. Over the years, rightwing Salvadoran politicians have gone as far as to say that Archbishop Romero is to blame for Salvadoran Civil War deaths because he fanned the flames of insurrection. The charge is plainly false, as Romero repeatedly and consistently denounced violence, as we have pointed out here, going as far as to tepidly endorse a military coup d’état in October 1979 to avoid greater bloodshed. He famously rebutted the accusation himself, saying, “We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a Cross—the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us.” Many are familiar with the famous appeal to the army in Romero’s last Sunday sermon to “stop the repression;” fewer are familiar with his appeal the Sunday before, “to the guerrilla groups,” in which he said: “I appeal to you and ask you to understand that nothing violent can be lasting.” There was still time to make peace, he insisted: “Above all else there is God’s Word, which has cried out to us today: reconciliation! God desires that we be reconciled and so let us be reconciled and we shall make El Salvador a land of sisters and brothers, all children of one Father who waits for us with outstretched arms.”

5. Archbishop Romero was a Communist sympathizer. Another related slander with which to assail and discredit Archbishop Romero has been that he was an ally of communists who wanted to undermine democracy and take over El Salvador. In the height of the Church persecution in El Salvador, the right was crass and audacious in its accusations, saying outright that Romero was a Marxist. They slandered him with the nickname “Marxnulfo,” an adulteration of his middle name, Arnulfo (which his parents gave him because he was born on August 15, the Feast of Saint Arnulf of Metz). As with the accusation that he was fomenting violence, Archbishop Romero consistently denied these characterizations and drew sharp contrasts between his preaching and the tenets of Marxism, which he rejected. As recently as 2008, then vice president of El Salvador Ana Vilma de Escobar told the Salvadoran newspaper El Faro that Archbishop Romero fomented class hatred by selectively emphasizing the repression of the right and turning a blind eye to the abuses of the left. In light of the UN Truth Commission’s findings that over 90% of the killings were the responsibility of the right, Romero’s emphasis seems to have been justified.

Part III: Manipulation of the Left

4. Reagan Administration policies contributed to the Romero assassination. This is a theory that is sometimes advanced, but it is easily and totally refuted: Archbishop Romero was assassinated on March 24, 1980; President Reagan was elected seven months later, on November 4, 1980, and began his term as president on January 20, 1981. So, no Reagan Administration policy could have contributed to or supported any Salvadoran government role in the assassination. In fact, Jimmy Carter was president during all of Archbishop Romero’s ministry, and it was to President Carter that Archbishop Romero directed his famous appeal for the U.S. to discontinue military support to El Salvador. There may be criticisms of the Reagan foreign policy to base on the Romero story, including that Reagan’s policies would have permitted gross human rights abuses like Romero’s murder. The problem that cannot be easily circumvented is that such abuses, including Romero’s murder, not only occurred under a Democratic administration, but they occurred under one which, as Romero chided Carter, had pledged to promote human rights.

3. Archbishop Romero was an adherent of Liberation Theology. This theory started with the right and migrated to the left. It was first advanced by Romero detractors such as Msgr. Freddy Delgado, but it was taken up with aplomb by followers of Liberation Theology who sought to add merit to their movement by claiming Romero as their own. In fact, Romero never cites or refers to mainline Liberation Theologians such as Leonardo Boff, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Manuel Pérez or Carlos Mugica. Romero never studies Liberation Theology directly, but reads about it from sources such as the Opus Dei theologian José María Casciaro, the Franciscan friar Buenaventura Kloppenburg, and the CELAM missionary Segundo Galilea. Instead, Romero draws up his views from his roots in ascetical theology, and in particular from the social doctrine of the Church as taught by Pope Paul VI (the “man who continually illuminates my thinking regarding these aspects”), Cardinal Eduardo Pironio (“a man who enjoys the full confidence of the Pope”), and the social teachings of the modern Popes. The postulator of his canonization cause, Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, maintains that Romero was not a dissident theologian but an faithful advocate of the orthodox social doctrine of the Church.

2. Pope John Paul II was hostile or cold to Romero. There is no denying that the Pope and the Archbishop wrestled with how to strike the right balance in El Salvador, and that John Paul was fed a lot of negative information about Romero that made the Archbishop feel he needed to set the record straight with the Pontiff. But Romero himself insisted that the tone of their interactions was respectful: “He did not scold me as some have said but rather it was a dialogue about criteria,” he said, “like when Paul went up to Jerusalem to speak with Peter about the content of his preaching.” They had two meetings: by Romero's own accounts, at their first meeting, John Paul leaned in and listened intently as Romero made his case, acknowledged the difficulty of Romero’s position and counseled “boldness and prudence” as Romero went forward and, at the end of their last meeting, John Paul embraced Romero and told him that he prayed every day for El Salvador.

1. His dying Eucharistic Prayer exulted “the Voice of Diatribe.” A glaring error in the Spanish language transcription of Archbishop Romero’s final sermon—the one during which he was assassinated—leads to a grotesque misstatement in the English translation. Namely, that, “To Christian faith, at this moment the voice of diatribe appears changed for the body of the Lord, who offered himself for the redemption of the world.” Except that, where the Spanish transcript says “voz de diatribo” (voice of diatribe), Archbishop Romero actually said “Hostia de Trigo” (wheaten Host). (The Word Remains: A Life of Oscar Romero (Orbis, New York, 1999), p. 244. The resulting error bolsters all the erroneous ideas about Romero as a dissident cleric and rebel rouser who equates the holiest sacrament with diatribes and sloganeering, rather than the spiritual minister focused on the religious rite.