[Announce] Scottish Cardinal O'Brien's 2007 Romero Sermon

[Robert Waldrop]

27TH ANNIVERSARY OF ASSASSINATION OF ARCHBISHOP 
OSCAR ROMERO
HOMILY PREACHED BY CARDINAL KEITH PATRICK O'BRIEN
http://www.archdiocese-
edinburgh.org.uk/cardinal/27thanniversaryofassassinationofarchbishopos
carromero.html

SACRED HEART CHURCH, LAURISTON

SATURDAY 24TH MARCH 2007

INTRODUCTION:

It is indeed a privilege being with you today 
celebrating and
preaching at this Mass on the 27th anniversary of 
the assassination
of the late Archbishop Oscar Romero in the Chapel 
at the Divine
Providence Hospital in San Salvador.

As you know His Excellency Archbishop Faustino 
Sainz Munoz, the
Apostolic Nuncio is here with us this evening and 
will speak to us at
the end of this Mass. Also His Excellency Mr 
Francis Campbell, the
British Ambassador to the Holy See, has flown from 
London to be with
us.

I am here with you as a Patron of the recently 
established Archbishop
Romero Trust - but also as a Bishop trying to 
follow like so very
many others in the footsteps of the saintly 
Archbishop Romero.

I have tried to grow in my knowledge of Archbishop 
Romero and his
people in El Salvador during three visits which I 
have made to that
country along with my brother priests - and have 
also tried to follow
in the footsteps of Archbishop Romero on my 
further visits to Africa,
Central America and India but particularly here in 
my apostolate in
Scotland.

I know that anything I say about my own following 
of Archbishop
Romero can easily be applied by yourselves in your 
own lives and
consequently I would ask you to make that 
application as I am
speaking.

I single out three aspects of "following in 
Romero's footsteps":
Spirituality; care of the poor and oppressed; and 
rejection of
oppression.

SPIRITUALITY OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO AND HIS PEOPLE:

Oscar Romero came from a simple background being 
the second eldest of
six children born in a village in El Salvador's 
mountains in 1917. He
was educated at junior seminary then in Rome where 
he was ordained a
priest at the age of 24. He loved his people and 
was eventually
ordained Bishop and then Archbishop of San 
Salvador.

He had a great love of Christ and of Christ in his 
people. It is
believed that his "conversion moment" came shortly 
after he had moved
back to San Salvador to replace the retiring 
Archbishop. A rural
parish priest Father Rutilo Grande SJ along with 
an old man and a
little boy had been ambushed and murdered as they 
walked to Mass.
Romero reacted strongly to that murder closing 
down all the schools
in his diocese for three days of reflection and 
protest and even
cancelled all Masses one Sunday except for the one 
in the Square
before the Cathedral which was attended by more 
than 100,000 people.

He celebrated Mass, he preached the Gospel in his 
churches and in his
Cathedral and through the medium of the local 
radio denouncing
whenever he could examples of oppression of which 
he was aware so
that he became the real voice of the suffering 
people of his country.

His simple spirituality based on his love of the 
Mass and the
Sacraments including especially his gift of 
preaching was something
which was to follow him to his death. Having 
appealed one day
directly to the Military urging soldiers not to 
obey orders contrary
to the laws of God he made a special plea to the 
Army to stop killing
their brothers and sisters. It was the very next 
day that he was
assassinated by a death squad that burst into the 
chapel at the
Divine Providence Hospital where he was 
celebrating Mass - he was
shot through the heart while he was preaching and 
he died at the
Altar.

CARE FOR THE POOR:

Oscar Romero had ample opportunity to care for the 
poor in his
suffering country.

When he became a Bishop it was well known that 
eighteen families
owned 90% of the wealth of San Salvador while 60% 
of the population
lived in abject poverty. It was impossible for the 
Bishop not to
become more and more deeply aware of the hardship 
and injustice that
marked the lives of his poor people living in the 
countryside.

Unequal division of wealth was difficult enough 
but El Salvador was
under the thumb of a Military armed by outside 
countries - a Military
not adverse to killing either by shooting into the 
protesting crowds
or sending in death squads to take out anyone 
thought to be opposing
the Regime.

Romero became a voice for the poor - and used his 
position to
proclaim their just cause. He was indeed a popular 
local radio
preacher and in addition edited the local Catholic 
paper and promoted
lay organisations to help his people in his 
diocese. As Archbishop
his preaching became evermore powerful and was 
popular with all his
people on the national radio despite the 
Government's attempts to get
them off the air.

One of my fondest memories on visiting his 
ramshackle Cathedral in
San Salvador and approaching his tomb was to be 
asked by a hunched up
old man speaking in broken Spanish: "Have you come 
to see Monsignor?"
It was indeed as if Romero was still alive in the 
Cathedral - but
although dead he was fulfilling that prophecy 
which he had made "If I
am assassinated I will continue to live on in my 
people!".

He had indeed, through his care for the poor in 
his country, given
them a great sense of our own value and their own 
worth, he empowered
them in every way.

STANDING UP TO OPPRESSORS:

The Ministry of Archbishop Romero did extend from 
being a local
bishop to one whose voice was heard proclaiming 
day in and day out
the Gospel message of Jesus Christ and the 
Church's strong teachings
about the rights of the poor and the oppressed.

The Government regarded him as an enemy who must 
be destroyed and one
indeed whose body they did manage to destroy 
through his sacrilegious
assassination.

Although the wealthy called him a friend of 
revolution, Romero was
indeed a peacemaker. He knew that simply ending 
rebel violence would
not end the greater violence induced by poverty, 
hunger and
oppression. For him, society had to be 
restructured, so that children
would not die of malnutrition and disease while 
their parents could
not find decent work. Though he encouraged 
peaceful reform, when
violence in the face of oppression was 
unavoidable, he still worked
to overcome the spirit of hatred and of vengeance. 
He stated quite
simply: "I am a shepherd who, with his people, has 
begun to learn a
beautiful and difficult truth: Our Christian Faith 
requires that we
submerge ourselves in this world".

LASTING LESSON OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO:

There are visible signs of the memory of 
Archbishop Romero in various
places in our countries. On the front wall of 
Westminster Abbey there
are engraved the figures of Martin Luther King and 
Archbishop Oscar
Romero side by side.

Near the entrance to the University Halls of 
Residence beside the
Commonwealth Pool there is "Romero Place". A 
plaque honouring the
life and work of Archbishop Romero was unveiled by 
the then Lord
Provost of the City of Edinburgh and dedicated by 
myself - his
inspiration lives on to inspire generations of 
students.

The Catholic Aid Agency CAFOD, the equivalent to 
SCIAF, has along
with SCIAF been at the forefront of promoting 
Romero ever since they
changed the address of their offices from Garden 
Close to Romero
Close in 1988. And now of course the Archbishop 
Romero Trust has been
inaugurated.

As I indicated earlier on in my words it is up to 
us not just to
think of the inspiration of Romero but to put into 
practice in our
own lives some of the inspirations which he has 
given to many people
not only during his life on earth but for the past 
27 years.

We ourselves should consider our own 
spirituality - our devotion to
the Mass and the Sacraments to our times of prayer 
and our union with
the suffering Christ. We should be more and more 
aware of the care
which we should be giving to the poor and the 
powerless both
throughout the world but also here at home. Romero 
never passed by
any of those "little ones" of Our Lord.

We must also be more than scrupulous with regard 
to our care for the
poor. Thank God, our outreach from this country is 
magnificent, both
with regard to our missionary endeavours and our 
ongoing funding with
regard to development aid all over the world. 
Perhaps, however, we
could be more careful with regard to our care for 
the poor on our
doorsteps. Difficult decisions have often to be 
made by each one of
us as we pass by those who seem to be pathetically 
begging at the
sides of our streets. However, I am sure that our 
voices must be
regularly raised to speak out for the poor and the 
powerless, those
who in our midst have no one else to speak for 
them.

We must be prepared to stand up and speak out in 
the face of
oppression of any kind. Archbishop Romero listened 
daily to the
sufferings of those who were oppressed in every 
sort of way. When
mothers and wives realised that their children had 
disappeared and
their tortured bodies were found, Romero once 
remarked: "It's my job
to retrieve the dead".

Perhaps that is something of the vocation of each 
and every one of
us - it is our task as Christians to "retrieve the 
dead"; to give new
life to those who have no hope; and to speak out 
in the name of those
who are indeed in the greatest need in our Church 
and world at this
present time.

CONCLUSION:

On my successive visits to El Salvador as also to 
other places of
suffering in Africa and Central America I hang my 
head in shame when
I realise that the same poverty still exists year 
by year by year
with little or no sign of improvement.

Even today standing here in this beautiful church 
dedicated to the
Sacred Heart in Edinburgh I think back to the end 
of Make Poverty
History campaign some two years ago now as we 
prepare for another
such campaign prior to the G8 summit taking place 
in Germany.

What has changed? How little has changed? What 
have we done?

Again we must repeat that call to "Make Poverty 
History!" and our
voices must continue to echo out in the name of 
the poor and the
powerless.

As we commemorate this anniversary day may the 
life and example of
Romero continue to help and inspire us as we 
continue his apostolate
in the Church and the world being other Christ's' 
in the place of
that one Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came on 
earth to suffer,
die and rise again for us all.