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Biography of Oscar Romero, ArchbishopName: Oscar Romero, ArchbishopBirth Date: August 15, 1917 Death Date: 24, 1980 Place of Birth: Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador Nationality: Salvadoran Gender: Male Occupations: archbishop Oscar Romero, Archbishop Until his assassination by right-wing gunmen, Archbishop Oscar Romero (1917-1980) of San Salvador spoke out courageously in defense of human rights and social justice in strife-torn El Salvador.Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was born in Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador, on August 15, 1917. His father, the town postmaster and telegraph operator, apprenticed him to a carpenter when he was 13, but the younger Romero felt a vocation for the Roman Catholic priesthood and left home the following year to enter the seminary. He studied in El Salvador and in Rome and was ordained in 1942.Romero spent the first two and half decades of his ministerial career as a parish priest and diocesan secretary in San Miguel. In 1970 he became auxiliary bishop of San Salvador and served in that position until 1974 when the Vatican named him to the see of Santiago de María, a poor, rural diocese which included his …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…entered a small chapel in San Salvador while Romero was celebrating mass and shot him to death. The archbishop had foreseen the danger of assassination and had spoken of it often, declaring his willingness to accept martyrdom if his blood might contribute to the solution of the nation's problems. "As a Christian," he remarked on one such occasion, "I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people." Further Reading An excellent account in English of Romero's career is James R. Brockman, S. J., The Word Remains: A Life of Oscar Romero (1982). On the role of the Roman Catholic Church as an advocate of social justice in Latin America, see Penny Lernoux, Cry of the People, 2nd edition (1982).Brockman, James R., Romero: a life, Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1989.Erdozain, Placido, Archbishop Romero, martyr of Salvador, Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1981. |