Archbishop Oscar Romero
EL SALVADOR
(1917–1980) Archbishop Oscar Romero was a religious leader and activist in El Salvador during the 1960s and 1970s. He was appointed archbishop because during the early part of his career he was a conservative and traditional religious figure. After a fellow priest and friend, Rutilio Grande, was assassinated for his political and social work with El Salvador’s peasants and poor, Romero was transformed. Romero began to fight fervently for the rights of the oppressed and was a key figure in the religious movement to practice “liberation theology”. His high position within the Catholic Church allowed him to speak out for the poor and oppressed, and he became known across the country as the “Voice of the Voiceless.” He championed the human rights of the people of El Salvador, using YSAX, the archdiocesan radio station, to give sermons and speeches about the injustices committed against his fellow El Salvadorans. Romero was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. In February of 1980, he wrote a letter to President Carter asking him to halt U.S military assistance to the Salvadoran government. On March 24th, 1980, an assassin shot and killed Archbishop Romero while he was giving mass in small hospital church. Over 250,000 people attended his funeral, which became a protest against the government. He became an icon to El Salvador’s revolution, and was canonized as a saint in 2018.
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