Today is not a feast day, but rather a testimony to the Resurrection. Bl. Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador was murdered while he was saying Mass on March 24, 1980. In the 1970's El Salvador was a breeding ground of violence and oppression, which eventually erupted into civil war. This was the situation in which Archbishop Romero found himself. He became an ardent advocate for the poor. He spoke as their spiritual father:
"In less than three years, more than fifty priests have been attacked, threatened, calumniated. Six are already martyrs--they were murdered. Some have been tortured and others expelled [from the country]. Nuns have also been persecuted. The archdiocesan radio station and educational institutions that are Catholic or of a Christian inspiration have been attacked, threatened, intimidated, even bombed. Several parish communities have been raided. If all this has happened to persons who are the most evident representatives of the Church, you can guess what has happened to ordinary Christians, to the campesinos, catechists, lay ministers, and to the ecclesial base communities. There have been threats, arrests, tortures, murders, numbering in the hundreds and thousands.... But it is important to note why [the Church] has been persecuted. Not any and every priest has been persecuted, not any and every institution has been attacked. That part of the church has been attacked and persecuted that put itself on the side of the people and went to the people's defense. Here again we find the same key to understanding the persecution of the church: the poor."
Bl. Oscar Romero is a martyr due to hatred of the faith, odium fidei. He witnessed for those most beloved of God, the poor and outcast.
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