Report: Salvador's Romero Closer to Beatification as Martyr

[Judi Lynn]

Report: Salvador's Romero Closer to Beatification as Martyr
VATICAN CITY — Jan 9, 2015, 1:45 PM ET
By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

Slain Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero has moved one step closer to beatification.

Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, reported Friday that a committee of theologians had confirmed that Romero died as a martyr. The designation means he can be beatified without having a miracle attributed to his intercession. A miracle is needed, however, for him to be made a saint.

Romero was gunned down by a right-wing death squad in 1980 while celebrating Mass. He had spoken out against repression by the Salvadoran army at the beginning of the country's 1980-1992 civil war between the right-wing government and leftist rebels.

A commission of cardinals and bishops must now sign off on the martyrdom designation and pass it on to Pope Francis for final approval. If approved, the long-awaited beatification could take place this year.

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Romero's saint-making case had been stalled in the Vatican for years because of his support for liberation theology. It has charged ahead under the first Latin American pope.

More:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/report-salvadors-romero-closer-beatification-martyr-28114823

[Judi Lynn]

1. He was shot by US-trained snipers.

Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero

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Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (August 15, 1917 - March 24, 1980) was a prominent Roman Catholic priest in El Salvador during the 1960s and 1970s becoming Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977. After witnessing numerous violations of human rights, he began to speak out on behalf of the poor and the victims of repression. This led to numerous conflicts, both with the government in El Salvador and within the Catholic Church. After speaking out against U.S. military support for the government of El Salvador, and calling for soldiers to disobey orders to fire on innocent civilians, Archbishop Romero was shot dead while celebrating Mass at the small chapel of the cancer hospital where he lived. It is believed that those who organised his assassination were members of Salvadoran death squads, including two graduates of the School of the Americas.

More:
http://www.un.org/en/events/righttotruthday/romero.shtml

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SOA Watch Update from March 22, 2011:

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Oscar Romero's assassins were members of Salvadoran death squads, including two graduates of the School of the Americas. The 1993 United Nations Truth Commission report on El Salvador identified SOA graduate Major Roberto D'Aubuisson as the man who ordered the assassination. While we welcome President Obama’s interest in visiting Archbishop Romero’s tomb, a more fitting tribute to Romero’s legacy would be the closure of the school that trained his murderers. President Obama's gesture rings hollow in the face of the continued U.S. support for repressive regimes such as Honduras that further U.S. interests and in the face of the continued funding for the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (also known as the School of the Americas), the U.S. military training facility that has left a trail of blood and suffering throughout the Americas.

More:
http://www.soaw.org/news/organizing-updates/3644-obama-oscar-romero-and-the-ongoing-repression-in-honduras

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Not only was Archbishop Romero murdered by the Salvadoran death squads, but the Salvadoran people, themselves, when they came to pay their respects to the man at his funeral. The Salvadoran army snipers opened up against the mourners.

[center]Massacre in El Salvador during Oscar Romero's funeral

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Wikipedia description of the funeral:

Romero was buried in the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador (Catedral Metropolitana de San Salvador). The funeral mass (rite of visitation and requiem) on 30 March 1980, in San Salvador was attended by more than 250,000 mourners from all over the world. Viewing this attendance as a protest, Jesuit priest John Dear has said, "Romero’s funeral was the largest demonstration in Salvadoran history, some say in the history of Latin America."

At the funeral, Cardinal Corripio Ahumada, speaking as the personal delegate of Pope John Paul II, eulogized Romero as a "beloved, peacemaking man of God", and stated that "his blood will give fruit to brotherhood, love and peace."[23]

During the ceremony, smoke bombs exploded on the streets near the cathedral and subsequently there were rifle-fire shots that came from surrounding buildings, including the National Palace. Many people were killed by gunfire and in the stampede of people running away from the explosions and gunfire; official sources talk of 31 overall casualties, while journalists indicated between 30 and 50 died.[24] Some witnesses claimed it was government security forces that threw bombs into the crowd, and army sharpshooters, dressed as civilians, that fired into the chaos from the balcony or roof of the National Palace. However, there are contradictory accounts as to the course of the events and "probably, one will never know the truth about the interrupted funeral."[24]

Twenty-five years later, the BBC recalled the scene:

Tens of thousands of mourners who had gathered for Romero's funeral Mass in front of the cathedral in San Salvador were filmed fleeing in terror as army gunners on the rooftops around the square opened fire.... One person who was there told us that piles of shoes were left behind by those who escaped with their lives.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero#Funeral