Monsignor Romero, Contemporary Saint

Archbishop Romero is the first Salvadoran and Central American to be declared a saint by the Catholic Church. He is also the first Catholic to be consecrated as a martyr after the Second Vatican Council. Revered by Catholics, but also honored by Anglicans, Lutherans and even non-believers.

Arnulfo Romero’s name was proposed for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 by the English parliament. In that year, however, the prize was awarded to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Pope Francis finally canonized him in 2018.

He was a living legend and continues to be so even after his death. Known for his kindness and courage, Monsignor Romero defended human rights from his pulpit ; he was not afraid to expose himself in the first person to denounce those who trampled them.

His murder, which took place during Sunday mass, is considered one of the triggers of the bloodiest phase in the civil war in El Salvador.

Monsignor Romero, a precocious vocation

Monsignor Arnulfo Romero was born in Ciudad Barrios, municipality of the department of San Miguel, El Salvador, on August 15, 1917. He came from a humble family: his father was a telegraph operator and his mother a maid. According to the words of his friends, he felt the calling very early. His day always began in the church chapel, where he went to pray for his family.

After elementary school, he devoted himself to carpentry and music. At the age of 13, he expressed his desire to enter the seminary to a priest. The scarce economic resources of his family represented an obstacle, but thanks to the help of the Claretian community, he soon succeeded in making his dream come true.

Despite the difficulties in continuing his studies in the seminary, due to family economic constraints, he proved to be brilliant and studious. He was therefore able to continue his studies in Rome. In Italy he had an exceptional teacher: the one who would later become Pope Paul VI.

A life with ups and downs

There is a little known episode in the life of Monsignor Romero. It happened during his return trip to his homeland, when the religious left Spain with the ship Marqués de Comillas. It was 1943 and Europe had fallen into World War II.

During a stopover of the ship in Cuba,  Monsignor Romero was arrested and taken to a concentration camp. In fact, he came from Mussolini’s Italy and Franco’s Spain. His imprisonment lasted 127 days, until he convinced his kidnappers that he was not an Axis spy.

In 1944 he finally returned to El Salvador after a stay in Mexico. In his native land he began to devote himself fervently to the weakest. He also embarked on a successful ecclesiastical career, which led him to become archbishop of San Salvador on February 3, 1977. At that point, his country was already breathing great political tension.

Monsignor Romero, American martyr

Many consider Monsignor Romero a conservative, however he was above all  a strongly committed Catholic, unable to remain silent in the face of the injustices committed in his country. He used the pulpit to denounce human rights violations.

In that period many religious were killed in El Salvador, almost always for the same reason: their fault was having sided with the poorest. To the total impunity of the murders, Romero responded with his complaints. On a first occasion he asked for an audience with Pope Paul VI and received his support.

A few years later, however, John Paul II refused to listen to him. In the Vatican there were rumors that Romero was a revolutionary priest and his presence was not welcome. Ultimately, the Pope questioned his complaints and Monsignor Romero returned to El Salvador discouraged and dejected.

On March 24, 1980, while he was celebrating mass in his parish, an armed group broke in and shot him. The episode, which shocked the country, is considered to be the start of a civil war that has caused more than 75,000 deaths and 7,000 missing. Today Sant’Arnulfo Romero is one of the great legends of America.