The Catholic Church's center of gravity shifts south
The move to canonize Oscar Romero is the latest sign of a church revival from Latin America
February 11, 2015 2:00AM ET
by Frank Desiderio
Since Peter and Paul moved from Jerusalem to Rome, the heart of the Catholic Church has been in Europe. With the election of Pope Francis almost two years ago, the center of the church shifted south of the equator. Now Francis has cleared the way for the canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero, further signaling this shift. The move goes beyond mere symbolism and demographics; it spells a welcome transformation of church practice.
Romero, archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, was assassinated March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass for nuns in the hospital chapel across the street from his small apartment. It was the Monday after he preached a sermon from the San Salvador Cathedral that was broadcast nationwide, imploring soldiers in El Salvador’s civil war not to use their weapons against fellow citizens. That sermon signed his death warrant. It was also the culmination of his personal conversion from bookish parish priest to outspoken archbishop.
Romero was elected archbishop of San Salvador as a compromise candidate, because he was considered a safe pick who wouldn’t challenge the social order. He was more conservative than those pushing for liberation theology, with its commitment to the poor. But his pastoral care of the campesinos — peasants struggling in harsh conditions under the military dictatorship — led to his political and spiritual conversion. He became an outspoken advocate for the oppressed in El Salvador and started to question the power structure of his country and the oligarchy that ran it.
Although Romero’s cause for canonization was accepted by the Vatican in 1993, it was kept on hold by Vatican insiders who regarded his activity on behalf of the poor as too leftist.
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/2/the-catholic-churchs-center-of-gravity-shifts-south.html
