Rejoice! Oscar Romero, martyr, lives

Editor’s note: When Oscar Romero was gunned down in 1980, NCR ran the following editorial. It is no less true or relevant today.

Archbishop Oscar Romero is dead, a martyr. Rejoice. It is El Salvador’s people who now need our prayers.

He is dead because he was with those who needed him: “In El Salvador we all run the risk of death. I have to fulfill my duty of speaking up and saying the truth. As is my duty as bishop. Afraid? No, it’s not exactly fear. But fearing or not, I have my duty.”

Rejoice.

He is dead because he spoke up for the community: “God is not only in the temple; he is in the community.”

Rejoice.

He is dead because he supported the priests, six of whom similarly were killed in two years: “I often stop to think the first cause of death in El Salvador is diarrhea from parasites and poor nutrition. And the second cause is violence, homicide.”

Rejoice.

He is dead because he supported the sisters: “Our poor nuns are suffering because they are collaborating with those who are under the yoke of this institutional violence.”

Rejoice.

He is dead because he attacked repressive government and its allies: “To get rid of this violence is to get rid of the institutional violence which is the root of all violence.”

Rejoice.

He is dead because he hoped: “I like to be called a man of hope. I believe this is my mission. I have tried to sow hope, to maintain hope, among the people. There is a liberating Christ which has the strength to save us. I try to give my people this hope.”

Rejoice.

He is dead because he attacked violence: “We have to continuously repeat, although it is the voice that cries in the desert, ‘No to violence, yes to peace.’ ”

Rejoice.

He is dead because he wanted justice: “We have already said that the church for its part will always be willing to use the only power it possesses, that of the Gospel, to illuminate any type of activity that will lead to justice.”

Rejoice.

But he is dead, most of all, because he was with the poor: “I just think of what I have always preached. There shouldn’t be first-class people and second-class people.”

Rejoice.

Oscar Romero is dead. Rejoice. He lives.

National Catholic Reporter, April 15, 2005