Thursday, December 24, 2015

2015: the year of Blessed Romero


 
BEATIFICATION OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO, MAY 23, 2015
 

 



#BlessedRomero #MartyrOfMercy

Without a doubt, Blessed Oscar A. Romero of El Salvador is one of the top Catholic newsmakers of the year.  If you are declared a martyr of the faith, have an asteroid named after you, are named patron saint of two worldwide Catholic organizations, and your beatification is hailed as “the top church story in Latin America”—as the Spanish Catholic newspaper Vida Nueva just did for Romero—then it can fairly be said you had an astonishing year.  All of that was Oscar Romero this year, with signs of continued newsworthiness in the future.  Here are the Top 10 stories of the Romero Year.

1.  ROMERO RECOGNIZED AS A MARTYR

Early in the year, a panel of Vatican theologians, followed by a commission of cardinals and bishops, then the Pope himself, unanymously approved a finding that Romero was a martyr of the Church because he was killed “in hatred of the faith.”  It was a historic decision, with theological, historical, and political repercussions felt from the Vatican to San Salvador.  Although the beatification ceremony outshined it in terms of spectacle, this pivotal decision was a tectonic shift in the trajectory of the cause and similarly important to the history of the Church.

2.  ROMERO BEATIFIED IN SPLENDID SAN SALVADOR CEREMONY

Archbishop Romero was beatified in San Salvador on May 23rd, the Saturday before Pentecost, in an outdoor ceremony with half a million in attendance.  It was splendid,” said the Vaticanista Luis Badilla.  Nothing was missing and nothing abounded. It was a ceremony about dignity in poverty, just like Romero.”  It was the largest non-papal beatification ceremony in church history, and it was “a planetary celebration” covered by 3,000 journalists and broadcast around the world by 14 TV networks, including Salt + Light TV in Canada, TeleSur in South America, ESNE in the Americas and Europe, TV2000 in Italy, and CNN En Español in the USA.

3.  POPE FRANCIS RECOGNIZES CHURCH TREATED ROMERO UNJUSTLY

In remarkably candid remarks, Pope Francis told a delegation of Salvadorans at the Vatican that Archbishop Romero had been “defamed, slandered, soiled—that is, his martyrdom continued even by his brothers in the priesthood and in the episcopate” in pointed criticisms of Romero before and after his death.  Although every canonization meets resistance within the Church, the resistance to Romero had been more entrenched, and thus the Pope’s willingness to acknowledge it signaled a desire to let the bad air out of the controversy.

4.  ROMERO AIDE ENSNARED IN CHILD SEX ABUSE SCANDAL

When a solar halo appeared, seemingly miraculously, during the beatification ceremony, it made the story of Romero’s beatification appear like a completely positive and gilded story.  A major black spot appeared six months later, when the Salvadoran Church announced that Romero’s collaborator, biographer, and historian, Msgr. Jesus Delgado, had sexually abused a parishioner from the time she was 9 years-old, until aged 17.  The news has not affected Romero’s cause, as his name has never been implicated the church abuse scandals despite almost constant smear-campaigns directed at him over 35 years (see no. 3 above).

5.  THREE MIRACLES REPORTED WITHIN SIX MONTHS

When the Salvadoran Church announced in October that it had identified three miracle cures through Romero’s intercession, it was seen as a sign that Romero could move very quickly to canonization.  After his beatification last year, Romero needs one certified miracle to be declared a saint.  Following the announcement, the archdiocese forwarded preliminary reports to Rome and is awaiting instructions on which of the cures to submit as the qualifying canonization miracle (two of the three are supposedly “first class” miracles).

6.  SCIENTISTS NAME ASTEROID AFTER ROMERO

Catholic news outlets, including Vatican Radio, and Salvadorans, including the president of El Salvador who retweeted the news, were mesmerized when scientists named a minor planet after Archbishop Romero in August.  The news was particularly dazzling in El Salvador, where Romero’s countrymen were amazed to see their martyred archbishop so recognized.

7.  THE GLOBAL CHURCH EMBRACES ROMERO

Around the world, Church support coalesced around the newly minted Blessed.  Caritas Internationalis and the World Catholic Association for Communication (SIGNIS) adopted Romero as a patron saint.  Various leading churchmen offered masses of thanksgiving for Romero’s beatification—including in Chicago, Los Angeles, and London.  A Roman Catholic parish was named after Romero in California, as well as several chapels in South America.

8.  THE SALVADORAN CHURCH ADOPTS ROMERO AS ITS STANDARD

In El Salvador, the local church modified the liturgy so that Romero’s name is invoked in every Mass.  The bishops have ordered Romero’s image to be displayed in every Church and they named their major seminary after him.  Romero’s relics have been touring the country, parish by parish, and have received a reverent reception at every stop.  In short, the ecclesial community long accused of neglecting Romero has now adopted him as the face of their church.

9.  POPE FRANCIS DEFINES ROMERO

In the first two years of his pontificate, Pope Francis only spoke about Romero once, when at the end of the second year, he was asked about Romero by journalists.  All that changed this year, when Francis spoke about Romero on six public occasions, including a general audience, an Angelus recitation, a Regina Caeli prayer, a speech to a visiting Salvadoran delegation (see no. 3 above), a lengthy letter to the Salvadoran church, and his year-end remarks to the Roman Curia.  That’s twice as many references as Pope Benedict made during his whole pontificate!

10.  RUTILIO GRANDE NEXT-IN-LINE FOR BEATIFICATION

The news that Fr. Rutilio Grande is moving fast toward becoming the second Salvadoran ‘Blessed’ is gratifying both because Grande was Romero’s friend, but also because Church authorities are talking about beatifying Grande and canonizing Romero together, soon.

Meanwhile, this blog completed its ninth year: blogging the beatification live and on location, and providing complete coverage and analysis of the ceremony and its various texts in the months since.  A post from this blog was republished in L’Osservatore Romano, and the asteroid story, first published here, was picked up by Vatican Insider, Vatican Radio, various Salvadoran papers, and Rome Reports.  We forged a blog partnership with Daily Theology, and provided a number of special reports, including the recent “Romero in Cuba.”

Prior Year Reports:

Top 10 of 2014

Top 10 of 2013

Top 10 of 2012

Top 10 of 2011

Top 10 of 2010

Top 10 of 2008

Top 10 of 2007

Roundup of 2006 (Spanish)

2015, el año del Beato Romero


 
BEATIFICACIÓN DE MONSEÑOR ROMERO, 23 DE MAYO DEL 2015
 

 




Sin lugar a dudas, el Beato Óscar A. Romero de El Salvador es uno de los grandes protagonistas de la noticia católica de este año. Si alguien es declarado mártir de la fe, nombran un asteroide en su honor, se le nomina patrono de dos organizaciones católicas mundiales, y su beatificación es aclamada como “la gran noticia eclesial de 2015 en América Latina”—como el periódico católico español Vida Nueva lo ha hecho para Mons. Romero—cabe decir que ha tenido un año sumamente sobresaliente. Todo esto ha sido Óscar Romero este año, con signos de continuada relevancia para el futuro.  He aquí los diez principales titulares del Año de Romero.

1. ROMERO RECONOCIDO COMO UN MÁRTIR

A principios del año, un grupo de teólogos del Vaticano, seguidos por una comisión de cardenales y obispos, y después, por el mismo Papa, aprobó por unanimidad el dictamen que Romero fue un mártir de la Iglesia, ya que fue asesinado “por odio a la fe.” Fue una decisión histórica, con repercusiones teológicas, históricas y políticas sentidas desde el Vaticano hasta El Salvador. Aunque la ceremonia de beatificación la eclipsó en espectáculo, esta decisión fundamental ha significado un cambio tectónico en la trayectoria de la causa y es también importante para la historia de la Iglesia.

2. ROMERO BEATIFICADO EN ESPLÉNDIDA CEREMONIA

Monseñor Romero fue beatificado en San Salvador el 23 de mayo, el sábado antes de Pentecostés, en una ceremonia al aire libre con medio millón de asistentes. “Bellísima”, dijo el vaticanista Luis Badilla. “No ha faltado nada y nada ha sobrado. Ha sido una ceremonia desde la pobreza en dignidad, al igual que Romero”. Fue la ceremonia de beatificación no papal más grande en la historia de la iglesia, y ha sido “una celebración planetaria” cubierta por 3.000 periodistas y transmitida por todo el mundo por 14 cadenas de televisión, entre ellas Salt + Light TV en Canadá, TeleSur en América del Sur, ESNE en las Américas y Europa, TV2000 en Italia, y CNN en Español en los EE.UU.

3. FRANCISCO RECONOCE TRATO INJUSTO DE ROMERO EN LA IGLESIA

En declaraciones contundentes, el Papa dijo a una delegación de salvadoreños en el Vaticano que Monseñor Romero había sido “difamado, calumniado, ensuciado—o sea que su martirio se continuó incluso por hermanos suyos en el sacerdocio y en el episcopado”, por críticas puntiagudas a Romero antes y después de su muerte. Aunque toda canonización encuentra resistencia dentro de la Iglesia, la resistencia a Romero había sido más arraigada, y por lo tanto la disposición del Papa a reconocerla indica un deseo de sacar el aire malo de la controversia.

4. COLABORADOR DE ROMERO EN ESCÁNDALO DE ABUSO

Cuando un halo solar apareció, al parecer milagrosamente, durante la ceremonia de beatificación, dio la impresión de que la beatificación de Romero debería ser una historia completamente positiva y encantada. Un importante punto negro apareció seis meses después, cuando la Iglesia Salvadoreña anunció que el colaborador, biógrafo e historiador de Romero, Mons. Jesús Delgado, había abusado sexualmente de una feligresa desde que ella tenía 9 años de edad, hasta los 17. La noticia no ha afectado la causa de Romero, ya que su nombre nunca ha sido implicado en los escándalos de abuso en la iglesia a pesar de campañas de desprestigio casi constantes dirigidas a él por más de 35 años (véase el punto no. 3).

5. TRES MILAGROS REPORTADOS DENTRO DE SEIS MESES

Cuando la Iglesia salvadoreña anunció en octubre que había identificado tres curaciones milagrosas a través de la intercesión de Romero, fue visto como una señal de que Romero podía moverse muy rápidamente a la canonización. Desde su beatificación el año pasado, Romero necesita un milagro certificado para ser declarado santo. Tras el anuncio, la arquidiócesis remitió informes preliminares a Roma y está a la espera de instrucciones de cuál de las curaciones debe presentar como el milagro que califique para la canonización (dos de los tres son supuestamente milagros de “primera clase”).

6. CIENTÍFICOS NOMBRAN ASTEROIDE POR ROMERO

Fuentes de noticias católicas, incluyendo Radio Vaticano; y los salvadoreños, entre ellos el presidente de El Salvador, que retuiteó la noticia, han quedado admirados de que los científicos hayan denominado un planeta menor por Monseñor Romero en agosto. La noticia fue particularmente deslumbrante en El Salvador, donde los paisanos de Romero se han impresionado de ver a su arzobispo mártir reconocido de esa manera.

7. LA IGLESIA GLOBAL ACEPTA A ROMERO

En todo el mundo, el apoyo de la Iglesia se unió alrededor del nuevo beato. Caritas Internationalis y la Asociación Católica Mundial para la Comunicación (SIGNIS) adoptaron a Romero como un santo patrón. Varios clérigos importantes ofrecieron misas de acción de gracias por la beatificación de Romeroincluso los obispos de Chicago, Los Ángeles y Londres. Una parroquia católica fue nombrada por Romero en California, así como varias capillas en Sudamérica.

8. LA IGLESIA SALVADOREÑA HACE A ROMERO SU ESTANDARTE

En El Salvador, la iglesia local modificó la liturgia para que el nombre de Romero sea invocado en cada misa. Los obispos han ordenado que la imagen de Romero sea colocada en todas las iglesias y han nombrado a su seminario mayor en su nombre. Las reliquias de Romero han estado de gira por el país, parroquia por parroquia, y han recibido una recepción reverente en cada parada. En resumen, la comunidad eclesial por mucho tiempo acusada de descuidar a Romero ahora lo ha adoptado como el rostro de su iglesia.

9. FRANCISCO DEFINE A ROMERO

En los primeros dos años de su pontificado, Francisco sólo habló de Romero una vez, cuando al final del segundo año, fue preguntado sobre Romero por algunos periodistas. Todo eso cambió este año, cuando Francisco habló sobre Romero en seis ocasiones públicas, incluyendo una audiencia general, un rezo del Angelus, una oración Regina Caeli, un discurso ante una delegación salvadoreña en visita (ver el punto no. 3), una larga carta a la Iglesia Salvadoreña y su discurso de fin de año a la Curia Romana. ¡Esto es el doble de las referencias hechas por el Papa Benedicto durante todo su pontificado!

10. SIGUE RUTILIO GRANDE PARA LA BEATIFICACIÓN

La noticia de que el padre Rutilio Grande se mueve rápidamente para convertirse en el segundo ‘beato’ salvadoreño es gratificante tanto porque Grande era amigo de Romero, como también porque las autoridades de la Iglesia hablan de beatificar a Grande y canonizar a Romero juntos, y muy pronto.

Mientras tanto, este blog ha completado su noveno año: blogueando la beatificación en vivo y desde el lugar, y proporcionando una cobertura y análisis completa de la ceremonia y sus diversos textos en los meses posteriores. Un post de este blog fue republicado en L’Osservatore Romano, y la historia del asteroide, publicado por primera vez aquí, fue recogida por Vatican Insider, Radio Vaticano, diversos diarios salvadoreños y Rome Reports. Forjamos una asociación de blogs con Daily Theology, y ofrecimos una serie de informes especiales, incluyendo la reciente “Romero en Cuba.”

Informes anteriores:

Top 10 del 2014

Top 10 del 2013

Top 10 del 2012 (inglés)

Top 10 del 2011 (inglés)

Top 10 del 2010 (inglés)

Top 10 del 2008 (inglés)

Top 10 del 2007 (inglés)

Resumen del 2006

2015, l’anno del Beato Romero


 
BEATIFICAZIONE DI MONSIGNOR ROMERO, 23 MAGGIO 2015
 

 



Senza dubbio, il Beato Oscar A. Romero di El Salvador è una delle notizie cattolici più importanti dell’anno. Se una persona è dichiarata martire della fede, hanno un asteroide con il suo nome, è nominato patrono di due organizzazioni cattoliche mondiale, e la sua beatificazione è dichiarata come “la più grande notizie della chiesa in America Latina”—come il giornale cattolico spagnolo Vida Nueva appena fatto su Romero—si può dire che ha avuto un anno sorprendente. Tutto questo è Oscar Romero quest’anno, con segni di continua notiziabilità in futuro.  Ecco i Top 10 storie del Anno di Romero.

1. ROMERO RICONOSCIUTO COME MARTIRE

All’inizio dell’anno, un gruppo di teologi del Vaticano, seguiti da una commissione di cardinali e vescovi, e poi il Papa stesso, unanimamente approvato un parere che Romero è un martire della Chiesa perché è stato ucciso “in odio alla fede”. È stata una decisione storica, con ripercussioni teologiche, storiche e politiche sentita dal Vaticano a San Salvador. Anche se la cerimonia di beatificazione è stato più in termini di spettacolo, questa decisione cruciale è stato uno spostamento tettonico nella traiettoria della causa e allo stesso modo importante per la storia della Chiesa.

2. ROMERO BEATIFICATO IN SAN SALVADOR

Romero è stato beatificato in San Salvador il 23 maggio, il Sabato prima della Pentecoste, in una cerimonia all’aperto con mezzo milione di presenze. “Bellisima”, ha detto il vaticanista Luis Badilla. “Non manca niente; non abonda nulla; è una ciremonia povera, nella dignita come era Romero”. È stata la più grande cerimonia di beatificazione non papale nella storia della Chiesa, e anche “una celebrazione planetaria” coperta da 3.000 giornalisti e trasmesso in tutto il mondo da 14 reti televisive, tra cui Salt + Light TV in Canada, TeleSur in Sud America, ESNE nelle Americhe e in Europa, TV2000 in Italia, e CNN En Español negli Stati Uniti.

3. PAPA RICONOSCE TRATTAMENTO INGIUSTO DI ROMERO NELLA CHIESA

In osservazioni straordinariamente candide, Papa Francesco ha detto ad una delegazione di salvadoregni in Vaticano che Mons. Romero ha stato “diffamato, calunniato, infangato—ossia il suo martirio continuò persino da parte dei suoi fratelli nel sacerdozio e nell’episcopato” in critiche a punta di Romero prima e dopo la sua morte. Anche se ogni canonizzazione incontra resistenze all’interno della Chiesa, la resistenza a Romero ha stato più radicata, e, quindi, la volontà del Papa di riconoscerla è un segno del suo desiderio di espellere l’aria viziata dalla polemica.

4. COLLABORATORE DI ROMERO IN SCANDALO DI ABUSI DI MINORE

Quando un alone solare è apparso, apparentemente miracolosamente, durante la cerimonia di beatificazione, ha fatto la storia della beatificazione di Romero sembrare come una storia completamente positiva e incantata. Un importante punto nero è apparso sei mesi dopo, quando la Chiesa salvadoregna ha annunciato che il collaboratore, biografo e storico di Romero, mons. Jesus Delgado, aveva abusato sessualmente di una parrocchiana da quando aveva 9 anni di età, fino all’età di 17 anni. La notizia non ha implicato la causa di Romero, già che il suo nome non è mai stato callegato agli scandali degli abusi nonostante quasi costanti campagne di diffamazione dirette a lui durante più di 35 anni (vedi punto n. 3).

5. TRE MIRACOLI SEGNALATI ENTRO SEI MESI

Quando la Chiesa salvadoregna ha annunciato nel mese di ottobre di aver identificato tre cure miracolose per l’intercessione di Romero, è stato visto come un segno che Romero potrebbe muoversi rapidamente alla canonizzazione. Dopo la sua beatificazione dello scorso anno, Romero ha bisogno di una miracolo certificato per essere dichiarato santo. Dopo l’annuncio, l’arcidiocesi ha trasmesso rapporti preliminari a Roma ed è in attesa della istruzioni su quali delle cure a presentare come il miracolo di qualificazione per canonizzare Romero (due dei tre sono presumibilmente miracoli di “prima classe”).

6. ASTEROIDE CON IL NOME DI ROMERO

Fonti di notizie cattoliche, come Radio Vaticana; e salvadoregni, come il presidente di El Salvador che ha fatto retweet la notizia, sono stati ipnotizzati quando gli scienziati hanno chiamato un asteroide per Mons. Romero nel mese di agosto. La notizia è stata particolarmente brillante in El Salvador, dove i connazionali di Romero hanno stato stupiti di vedere il loro arcivescovo martire così riconosciuto.

7. ABBRACCIO A ROMERO DALLA CHIESA GLOBALE

In tutto il mondo, il supporto della Chiesa si fuse intorno al nuovo Beato. Caritas Internationalis e l’Associazione Cattolica Mondiale per la Comunicazione (SIGNIS) hanno adottato Romero come un santo patrono. Vari leader ecclesiastici hanno offerto messe di ringraziamento per la beatificazione di Romero—includendo i vescovi di Chicago, Los Angeles e Londra. Una parrocchia cattolica in California è stato nominata per Romero, così come diverse cappelle in Sud America.

8. CHIESA SALVADOREGNA PRENDE ROMERO DI STANDARD

In El Salvador, la chiesa locale ha modificato la liturgia in modo che il nome di Romero viene richiamato in ogni Messa. I vescovi hanno ordinato l’immagine di Romero in ogni Chiesa e hanno chiamato il loro seminario maggiore dopo di lui. Le reliquie di Romero sono stati in tour nel paese, parrocchia per parrocchia, e hanno ricevuto un’accoglienza reverente ad ogni fermata. In breve, la comunità ecclesiale accusata per tanti anni di trascurare Romero lo ha ormai adottato come il vero volto della sua chiesa.

9. PAPA FRANCESCO SI APRE SU ROMERO

Nei primi due anni del suo pontificato, Papa Francesco ha parlato di Romero solo una volta, quando alla fine del secondo anno, i giornalisti gli hanno chiesto su Romero. Tutto questo è cambiato quest’anno, quando Francesco ha parlato su Romero in sei occasioni pubbliche, tra cui un’Udienza Generale, una recita dell’Angelus, una preghiera del Regina Caeli, un discorso ad una delegazione di El Salvador in visita (vedi n. 3), una lunga lettera al chiesa salvadoregna, e le sue osservazioni di fine anno alla Curia Romana. Quello è il doppio dei riferimenti fatti da Papa Benedetto durante tutto il suo pontificato!

10. RUTILIO GRANDE, PROSSIMO ALLA BEATIFICAZIONE

La notizia che p Rutilio Grande si muove velocemente a diventare il secondo “beato” salvadoregno è gratificante sia perché Grande era amico di Romero, e perché le autorità della Chiesa stanno parlando di beatificare Grande e canonizzare Romero insieme, a presto.

Nel frattempo, questo blog ha completato il suo nono anno: live-blogging la beatificazione sul posto, e fornendo una copertura e analisi completa della cerimonia e dei suoi vari testi nei mesi successivi. Un post da questo blog è stato ripubblicato in L’Osservatore Romano, e la storia del asteroidi, pubblicata la prima volta qui, è stato ripresa da Vatican Insider, Radio Vaticana, vari giornale salvadoregni, e Rome Reports. Abbiamo forgiato una blog partnership con Daily Theology, e abbiamo fornito relazioni speciali, tra cui il recente “Romero a Cuba”.

Rapporti di Anni precedenti:

Top 10 del 2014

Top 10 del 2013

Top 10 del 2012 (inglese)

Top 10 del 2011 (inglese)

Top 10 del 2010 (inglese)

Top 10 del 2008 (inglese)

Top 10 del 2007 (inglese)

Resumen del 2006 (spagnolo)

 

Monday, December 21, 2015

Oscar Romero’s Odyssey in Cuba


 
BEATIFICATION OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO, MAY 23, 2015
 

 
The Marques de Comillas enters Havana Harbor.




#BlessedRomero #MartyrOfMercy

When Maria Lopez Vigil published her collective biography of Archbishop Romero, Memories in Mosaic, she realized she was missing a particular fragment of the mosaic. “When I wrote the book I learned that in 1943 Archbishop Romero”—López Vigil later explained—“had passed through Cuba.” However, “I was frustrated not to find any witnesses who could tell me more about this singular episode in Romero’s life and I had to give up on including the Cuban piece in the portrait I was composing,” the Cuban-Nicaraguan writer lamented.

Now «Super Martyrio» tackles the subject, and we uncover an odyssey for Romero, the new priest traveling back to his country. Pulling back the veil, we publish here for the first time dates, locations, and details that paint the complicated scenario. Some questions beget more questions. Were Romero’s travails triggered by an accusation by future Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway? Was Romero an indirect victim of the persecution of the Spanish Church? Why did Romero never talk about this brush with state repression?

Ciao, Roma!

Europe and almost the whole world were a conflagration during the Second World War,” Romero recalled many years after the events. “Those who could return to their homelands gambled with the perils of the adventure.” The adventure for Father Romero began when he checked out of the Latin American College on Monday August 16, 1943, over a year after he was ordained a priest.

Traveling with his best friend, Father Rafael Valladares and another Salvadoran, Father Mauro Yanez Acosta, he began his journey back after 6 years of study in Rome—a stay extended by the Second World War. They flew in an Italian plane from Rome to Barcelona. In Spain, they lingered for several days visiting Madrid and Bilbao, where they called on the famous Jesuit, Fr. Joseph N. Guenechea, the spiritual director of Fr. Pedro Arrupe, and author of several books (including one entitled “Poverty of the Liturgy and Clergy in Spain”).

Romero aboard the Marques de Comillas.
Crossing the Atlantic aboard the Marqués de Comillas

On Sunday August 29th, they sailed from Bilbao bound for the Americas aboard the S.S. Marqués de Comillas. A photograph taken at the time shows Romero and Valladares aboard the ship, along some thirty other priests and seminarians. It was smooth sailing, and the new priests were surely eager and excited to come home to their loved ones after a long absence.

They traveled in comfort. The Comillas had a capacity for 570 passengers. With an average speed of 16 knots, it made the transatlantic crossing rather slowly (in its prior trip before Romero’s, it had taken 25 days to cross the ocean). But the trip was very pleasant. The single stack steamship had a movie theater, a hall, a music room and a dining room that looked like a courtyard with Moorish arches, decorated in the style of the manor houses of Northern Spain. It had a reputation for serving great food. On the landing of the grand staircase that connected the hall to the music room, there was a large painting, the work of the La Coruña painter Fernando Alvarez de Sotomayor, showing Sir Claudio López Bru, the second Marquis of Comillas, who is now in process of beatification.

The atmosphere aboard the ship reflected the domesticity of Spanish life: roosters crowed in the cargo hold, portraits of Generalissimo Francisco Franco adorned the rooms of some of the crew, and banners with slogans like “Go, Spain!” decorated the hallways. Spanish was heard in the corridors, which were all carpeted in red. While some crew members were zealous Franco supporters, the captain, Gabriel Guiscafré Rosello, 60, practiced neutrality both with respect to politics and to the military conflicts that shook the world. That diplomatic attitude must have allowed him to get along with the myriad nationalities aboard.

Romero and Valladares felt at ease on the Comillas, thinking that they had left the danger of the European wars behind on that continent. What they did not imagine is that the Atlantic was a sea of ​​intrigue and conspiracy, awash in rumors of spies and infiltration, and a real ancillary war between Allied ships and Axis submarines, especially the infamous Germans “U-Boats.”

There was also a great current of helpless souls trying to escape persecution and extermination at the hands of the Nazis. In 1939, Cuban authorities had refused entry to 900 Jews aboard the S.S. St. Louis who were forced to turn back into Hitler’s clutches. The Marqués de Comillas was the transport for many refugees. On the trip Romero was on, there was a Polish Jewish family, a mother of 36, Peśla Parmes, and her daughter Helena, 12, with a final destination in the Bronx, New York, where Peśla’s sister, Edith Foreman who had paid their fares, awaited them. If she were still alive, the little girl would be 85 years old today.

Perhaps Romero and Valladares knew all this, but preferred not to think about it. “When I was a seminarian I heard a story that comes to mind given the circumstances of today,” Romero recounted in May 1979. “It was a story about a sailor who was sent to fix something high on the mast; as he climbed high up and looked down at the roiling sea, he became dizzy and was about to fall,” Romero said. “When the captain noticed this, he told him, «Young fellow, look upward!» and that was his salvation. When he looked upward he could no longer see the heaving ocean, and he did the job calmly.”

Trinidad and Jamaica

The first port of call in the Americas was the island of Trinidad on Saturday, September 18th. If the Salvadorans presumed they were safe because they were back on their own continent, the European war made its presence felt in the intrusion of the searches they faced upon docking.

It turns out that the reassuring atmosphere of the Marqués de Comillas was misleading. The ship itself was the focus of suspicion. The previous December, the future Nobel Prize in Literature, Ernest Hemingway, acting as an amateur secret agent on his fishing boat, was watching the transatlantic traffic and supposedly detected suspicious activity on the ship that Romero would sail nine months later—the Marqués de Comillas. In a report submitted to the FBI and passed along to Cuban authorities, Hemingway asserted that he saw the Marqués de Comillas in an exchange with a German submarine, either refueling it or transferring German spies. A Nazi spy had been arrested and executed in Cuba that year (1942).

The fear of U-Boat incursions was also at its peak. Between mid-1942 to early-1944, seven Cuban ships were sunk by German submarines. Hemingway’s accusation against the Marqués de Comillas was taken seriously and was thoroughly investigated. When the Comillas docked in Havana nine months before Romero’s trip, an FBI agent questioned the 40 crew members and 50 passengers aboard the ship with Cuban cooperation regarding the alleged exchange. The investigation came to nothing, and the authorities seem to have dismissed the Hemingway report. However, he insisted on its accuracy and continued to monitor the Comillas in 1943. In fact, in the days Romero was sailing into Trinidad and Jamaica aboard the Comillas, Hemingway was setting out on his last patrol of the Cuban coast. There is no evidence that the allegations of the Nobel laureate were still being taken seriously so late in 1943, but they were typical of the concerns of the time.

[Hemingway wrote a novel called Islands in the Stream, published posthumously, that was inspired by these events. Hemingway committed suicide in 1961. Msgr. Valladares passed away and the Marqués de Comillas burned off the Barcelona coast that same year.]

Detained in Cuba

What is clear is that Romero and Valladares were arrested when they disembarked in Cuba after having made a second American stop in Kinston, Jamaica. They arrived in Havana on Tuesday September 21st. They were going to transfer to another ship there. Romero’s biographer describes the perplexity of the two at their arrest: “They did not understand anything that was happening.” [Delgado, Óscar A. Romero: biografía, pp. 25-26.]  Valladares’ biographer agrees: “incomprehensible reasons” caused them to be detained. [De Paz Chávez, La ciudad donde se arrancan corazones, 2013.]  If Romero and Valladares did not understand what was happening, the reasons for their arrest remain difficult to process today. The reasons seem as inscrutable as those for the arrest of Christ!

The most accepted theory is that Romero and Valladares were arrested because their travel had originated in Italy, an Axis country (Delgado, Paz, Struckmeyer). But could this be the reason they were suspected? A new Romero biography makes the point that on September 9th, Italy had signed an armistice, crossing over to the Allied side. [Mata, Monseñor Óscar Romero: Pasión por la Iglesia, 2015, p. 33.]  When the Marqués de Comillas arrived in Havana on September 21, this would have been known to the Cuban authorities. In fact, Cuba freed several prominent Italians who had been in detention, including members of the Italian royal family, in October of that year. Nonetheless, it was a fact that Cuba had had an internal policy of detention for Axis nationals as of that date, and that despite the armistice with Italy, it remained suspicious of Italians, some of whom remained fascist partisans even after the treaty.

Romero and Valladares were thoroughly searched and interrogated by the Investigation Service for Enemy Activities (SIAE) of the Central Division of the Police, and their cassocks and priestly attire proved insufficient to spare them. In fact, they were not the first priests aboard the Comillas to be so accused. In the ocean liner’s previous crossing, in June 1943, the Cuban authorities had arrested three Spanish Dominican priests, after supposedly finding pro-Hitler propaganda among their belongings. At any rate, it is clear that Romero and Valladares were selected from among the other passengers for this treatment: the Marqués de Comillas continued on its path, sailing into New Orleans on September 28 and was back in Europe in October without further incident. (This refutes Santiago Mata, when he asserts that “The ship … was detained in Cuba, the crew and passengers of the vessel jailed.” -Op. Cit.).

Other sources mention that Romero and Valladares were “suspected of espionage” (Brockman, Morozzo, Lopez Vigil). It is unclear whether such suspicion was generalized (because they came from Italy) or prompted by something in particular the Salvadorans said, or by something that was found among their possessions. It is hard to fathom the two would have given authorities reason for such suspicions. Both were avid anti-Nazis, who admired Pope Pius XI precisely because he faced-off with the fascists, vowing that “nobody is going to laugh at the Church” during his papacy.


The Tiscornia Camp.
The “Tiscornia” Camp

Romero and Valladares were initially taken to the Tiscornia Immigration Station. This was the central processing center for all refugees and immigrants who arrived on the island. It was on the other (northeast) side of the Bay of Havana, in what is now the site of the Cristo de La Habana monument (in the Casablanca neighborhood).

The camp buildings were constructed in the style of U.S. Army barracks, surrounded by barbed wire, and they housed refugees who arrived on the island without documentation or resources, while their status was investigated. A report of the Joint Relief Committee of the time details contemporary conditions at the camp in May 1942, indicating the presence of about 450 detainees, some of whom were there for several months. Inmates were not allowed to communicate with the outside, as they were unable to have visitors or to send or receive letters or use the telephone or telegraph. “While it is understandable that the Cuban Government wishes to check very carefully on the identity of all enemy nationals entering Cuban territory,” the report reads, “it cannot be overlooked that the situation of the refugees in Tiscornia is far from good.” The report specifically mentions that the food was poor by European palates.

All reports agree that the nutrition Romero and Valladares received was inadequate—so much so, that it caused health problems for both young men. “The food was very poor,” recalls Gaspar Romero, the younger brother of Blessed Romero. “Bishop Valladares became seriously ill, and Oscar became very thin.” Valladares got so sick that even back in El Salvador in 1944, he needed extensive time to recover. “Tiscornia was a relocation camp devoid of resources and facilities,” recalls a refugee detained in the place. [Galega do Ensino Magazine, No. 35 - May 2002.]  The Spanish writer Eva Canel is even more blunt: “Tiscornia was a name of foreboding!

Forced labor

Romero biographies mention another detail of his stay in Cuba: he had to perform “forced labor,” says Maria Lopez Vigil, “washing toilets, mopping, sweeping.” Despite being familiar tasks, these bathroom cleaning assignments were so grueling that they left both priests exhausted every night. This information suggests that Romero and Valladares were moved to another place, a labor camp.

From Tiscornia, detainees were sent to other detention camps. The less committed were sent to the Torrens Reformatory in Wajay (province of Havana), a camp which was subsequently reconfigured for juvenile rehabilitation. Street youths and minors were brought there, using the need to teach them a craft as a pretext for detaining them (typically they did work proper to the farm, on the fields and raising different animals). But the site also held approx. 3,000 Germans, 1,370 Italians and some 250 Japanese and Koreans after the passage of a special law in reaction to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. If Romero and Valladares had to perform forced labor, they may have spent time in the Torrens camp. But, this is speculation.

Rescued by Redemptorists

Romero and Valladares’ salvation came when, after about a month of detention, a Redemptorist missionary working in the camp where they were being held confirmed that Romero and Valladares were priests. The Redemptorists saw to it that Romero and Valladares were taken out of the camp and to a hospital in Havana, where they stayed for a short time getting medical attention.

But their release was probably not due solely to the fact that they were priests. It is hard to believe that their status as priests would not have been evident from the first search of their belongings. A photo of Romero and Valladares aboard the Comillas shows the two wearing clerical garb, and both priests were known in their youth to be strict in their attire, always wearing their cassocks or at least the Roman collar. This begs the question whether the reason Romero and Valladares were not released earlier by virtue of their being priests is that they were being harassed because of it. If so (and this is not confirmed), this episode could extend the “previous martyrdom” of Romero, giving a new dimension to Pope Francis’ remarks that “Archbishop Romero’s martyrdom did not occur precisely at the moment of his death,” because it included “a martyrdom of witness, of previous suffering, of previous persecution.”

This “martyrdom” would have occurred under a different dynamic. The Fulgencio Batista of that time was different from the Batista that Fidel Castro overthrew in 1959. Batista was in his first term (1940-1944), legitimately elected from the Democratic-Socialist Coalition, with ministers from the Cuban Communist Party in his cabinet. His government had an innate enmity to the conservative faction of the Spanish Civil War, of which the Church was suspected of being a part and persecuted therefor. Romero and Valladares had visited committed Spanish clergy. If they were harassed because they were priests, it may have been a ripple of that conflict.

Romero in Yucatan.
The Last Journey of Oscar Romero

Finally released, Romero and Valladares traveled by boat from Cuba to Yucatan, Mexico, and from there overland to El Salvador, arriving in their homeland on Thursday December 23rd, “like Christmas presents” for family members who had given them up for dead. Guadalupe Romero, Romero’s mother, had already mourned his loss. But Romero entered Ciudad Barrios triumphantly on January 4, 1944, to a popular celebration held in his honor. His hometown’s joy when the lost traveler reappeared was uncontainable, Gaspar Romero recalls. “Oh! The whole town stopped working to come out and greet him.”

Incredibly, Archbishop Romero, who bravely denounced prolonged detentions without due process, never spoke publicly about his own experience of this abuse. Instead of talking about himself, he lamented the experience of the “mothers, wives and children, from one end of the country to the other [who] have walked the way of the cross searching for their dear ones without finding any answer whatever.” (May 14, 1978 Homily.) Contrary to the Salvadoran constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Persons have been detained illegally for more than thirty days,” Romero decried. It was an injustice which he knew firsthand.