Posted by Dave on 03/24/08 at 01:39:44 pm
Categories: Non-violence

28 years ago today, Oscar Romero was gunned down just after giving a homily in his church. Romero was the archbishop of San Salvador in a time of great injustice, great violence, and great oppression:

As archbishop, he witnessed ongoing violations of human rights and started a group which spoke out on behalf of the poor and victims of the country's civil war. Chosen as archbishop for his conservatism, once in office he embraced a nonviolent form of liberation theology, a position which led to comparisons with Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. In 1980, he was assassinated by El Salvadoran government troops as he held the consecrated host up during a Mass.

In that homily, he had this to say:

One must not love oneself so much, as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life that history demands of us, and those that fend off danger will lose their lives.

Up until that last couple of years, I knew nothing about Oscar Romero. I knew nothing about a man who was killed to standing up against injustice and violence, a man who was willing to risk his life to save the life of others.

Oscar Romero is a hero. He was a man who stood against wrong, even though he knew the likely repercussions.

We would all do well to just be a little like Oscar Romero.

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