2018-10-14 · Vatican City (St. Peter's Square)
Canonization of Oscar Romero
On October 14, 2018, Pope Francis canonized Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, who was assassinated while celebrating Mass in 1980 for speaking out against violence and injustice during El Salvador's civil war.
When Oscar Romero was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977, the government and the wealthy elite expected him to be compliant. He had a reputation as a conservative, bookish churchman. They were wrong. Within weeks of his appointment, his close friend Rutilio Grande, a Jesuit priest who worked with poor farmers, was murdered by a right-wing death squad. The killing changed Romero. He began using his weekly homilies, broadcast by radio across the country, to name the victims of government violence — reading out lists of the killed and disappeared, calling for justice, and insisting that the Church could not remain neutral when people were being slaughtered. He became the most trusted voice in El Salvador for those who had no other advocate. On March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in the chapel of the Hospital de la Divina Providencia, Romero was shot through the heart by a sniper. He died at the altar. His assassination was ordered by Major Roberto D'Aubuisson, a military intelligence officer linked to death squads. More than 250,000 people attended his funeral, which was itself attacked with bombs and gunfire. Romero's cause for canonization was complicated by Cold War politics. Some in the Vatican worried that honoring him would appear to endorse liberation theology or left-wing politics. His cause stalled for years. Pope Francis unblocked it. Romero was beatified in 2015 and canonized on October 14, 2018, alongside Pope Paul VI. The canonization was a statement: that standing with the poor and denouncing injustice, even at the cost of your life, is what holiness looks like.
Why it matters
Affirmed that defending the poor and opposing unjust violence — even when politically controversial — is an authentic expression of Catholic holiness, and honored a modern martyr who died at the altar.
What Happened
On October 14, 2018, Pope Francis canonized Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, who had been assassinated while celebrating Mass on March 24, 1980. Romero had spent the final three years of his life publicly denouncing the government-sponsored violence that was killing thousands of Salvadorans. His cause for canonization had been delayed for decades by political complications. Pope Francis cleared the path, and Romero was beatified in 2015 before being declared a saint in 2018.
Why It Still Matters
Romero's canonization sent a clear message about what the Church values. He was not a theologian or a mystic. He was a pastor who saw his people being killed and refused to stay quiet, even when it cost him his life. His story is particularly important in Latin America, where he is widely revered, but it speaks to Catholics everywhere about the inseparability of faith and justice. He is one of the few modern saints who died literally at the altar.