38th anniversary of Oscar Romero's martyrdom


Today is the 38th anniversary of the martyrdom of archbishop Oscar Romero, slain by a sharpshooter's bullet while saying mass.  Thirty-eight years later, the Roman Catholic church will officially canonize Romero as a saint.   The sniper's bullet failed to silence the message of this prophet and martyr who was a "voice for the voiceless."

The anniversary of Romero's deaths falls this year at the beginning of Holy Week.  Forty years ago, in Holy Week, Romero preached these words in one of his sermons:

Christ would not be Redeemer 
if he had not concerned himself with giving food 
to the crowds that were hungry, 
if he had not given light to the eyes of the blind, 
if he had not felt sorrow for the forsaken crowds 
that had no one to love them, no one to help them.
Christianity cares about human development, 
about the political and social aspects of life. 
Redemption would not be complete 
if it did not consider these aspects 
of the Christ who chose in fact to be an example 
of one oppressed under a powerful empire 
and under a ruling class of his people 
that savaged his reputation and honor 
and left him on a cross. 
MARCH 26, 1978

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