El Salvadorans’ Revolutionary Archbishop

El Salvadorans’ Revolutionary Archbishop:

His Struggle and His Changes

“In El Salvador in the late ’70s, the wealthy few ruled the impoverished many. To maintain the status quo against peasant insurgents and labor organizations, the military regime brutalizes the populace, in particular, rebels who espouse Marxism. Assassinations, executions, and disappearances become commonplace. When the Vatican elevates conservative Oscar Arnulfo Romero to archbishop, the military rulers believe he will quiet the masses and the activist priests who support them. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” he will preach. At first, that is precisely what he does. But when soldiers thwart voters, shoot indiscriminately into crowds, torture dissidents, and kill a dedicated priest and friend of Romero, the archbishop condemns the regime in radio messages, rebukes quisling bishops, and leads a peasant march into a church occupied by soldiers. He also insults and defies the El Salvadoran president, an iron-fisted general, who, ironically, has the same last name as the archbishop Romero, but is not related. The country by this time is in the throes of civil war. In 1980, when military death squads continue their reign of terror even though the government institutes so-called reforms, Romero continues to speak out, gaining international attention. He was gunned down by US-backed death squads for his advocacy on behalf of the poor, when he was saying mass for his recently deceased mother on Monday, March 25, 1980. Four men who have no intention of receiving Holy Communion, were considered as the actors of the assassination.”

Romero’s struggle and life can not be separated from his believing in his patron, Jesus. As Jesus taught us about love and the preferential option for the poor, so did Romero do in his struggles among El Salvadorans. His efforts have gained so much support for El Salvador to be freed from the military regime, which oppressed El Salvadorans much. The term “preferential option for the poor” itself, is used by the Church as the implementation of Jesus’ teaching. As we know, Jesus is a revolutionary. But, He isn’t the cruel and conservative one. Jesus is a man who holds a radical escatological position. It means that His hope about the Kingdom of God made Him be more critical of the Roman Empire and the priest of the Holy Temple. His critical attitudes impressed the Zealots, but He was obviously different in manners. Jesus stricly rejects a kind of violent rebel, even for the sake of others. The Zealots, as we know, use violence to express their critical behavior.

The same case happens in Romero’s life. He has two choices in expressing the preferential option for the poor. The first way is by joining the guerillas (means fighting/called to arms), or expressing it with words to demand justice in the country (non-violent way). Oscar Romero chose the last one. He aspires to justice and better lives for the El Salvadorans. But, to be like this (dare to demand justice for his people) he needs a series of quite complicated processes. At the first time, he seems to like to hide from his responsibility in defending justice. It was affected by his conservative vision about liberation theology. After passing a series of uncomfortable moments, he realized that his people need him. They need a shepherd to come before them, the representative one who is considered capable of leading the children of God like them. Romero is the one. Even so, at the very beginning the poor never expected him to take their side. He was a compromise candidate elected to head the episcopacy by conservative fellow bishops. He was predictable, an orthodox, pious bookworm who was known to criticize the progressive liberation theology clergy so aligned with the impoverished farmers seeking land reform. But an event took place within three weeks of his election transformed the ascetic and fearful Romero.

“The Jesuit’s dupe”, that is the term that shows (in a positive way) the Jesuits’ role in his changes. Jesuits’ struggle in defending people’s freedom (Rutilio Grande’s case) made a significant change in Romero’s life. He had a new vision about liberation theology. This new vision brings a lot of consequences. Romero’s preaching began to raise regime’s anger. He face a sequence of terrors. But, Romero has already prepared. The terrors made him stronger in preserving people’s justice. By days he passed with his people’s troubles, Romero has already understood that the church is more than the hierarchy, Rome, theologians or clerics—more than an institution—but the people themselves as church. “God needs the people themselves,” he said, “to save the world . . . The world of the poor teaches us that liberation will arrive only when the poor are not simply on the receiving end of hand-outs from governments or from the churches, but when they themselves are the masters and protagonists of their own struggle for liberation.”

Romero has played a great role in El Salvador’s liberation struggle. He was a patriot for his “preferential option for the poor” actions. He showed us a typical action as Jesus did. We can say that Romero is one of the alter Christus in this modern era. To be this kind of alter Christus is not always easy. Romero himself needs a series of “temptations” before he really realizes that it is his vocation to proclaim liberation for the El Salvadorans. Eventhough, he was scared when the regime tried to repress him. But, time finally tells the quality of Romero. He “fights”, like Jesus, with words, sympathy, and humanity; not like Zealot with violence. Romero has shown us a model of liberator, a model of man who cares for people’s sufferings without abandoning mercy and compassion. The death of Romero does not end or weaken the struggle. By his words (and death), he has called international attention. His words, also, burn the spirit of the people to fight for the liberation. Before his death, he told his people: “If some day they take away the radio station from us . . . if they don’t let us speak, if they kill all the priests and the bishop too, and you are left a people without priests, each one of you must become God’s microphone, each one of you must become a prophet. And….you can tell those people if they succeed in killing me, that I forgive and bless those who do it. Hopefully, they will realize they are wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish.”

Romero, truly, is a man of peace and liberation. He was a bishop, a priest, a liberator, a revolutionary, and a patriot. He was a holy man for his attempts in defending the rights of the people, of course, after passing a period of hard times.