Thursday Oct. 25th, 2018Amy Goodman
A painting of St Oscar Romero at the Cathedral of San Salvador (Getty)
On Sunday, Pope Francis sainted Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. The pope was wearing Romero's bloodstained rope belt, the one Romero wore when he was assassinated on March 24, 1980. The day before he was killed, the archbishop gave a sermon that commanded El Salvador's soldiers to disobey the orders of their superiors:
"I would like to make a special appeal to the men of the army, and specifically to the ranks of the National Guard, the police and the military. Brothers, you come from our own people. You are killing your own brother peasants when any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God which says, 'Thou shalt not kill.'" He went on, "In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression."
Matt Eisenbrandt, human-rights lawyer and the author of "Assassination of a Saint: The Plot to Murder Oscar Romero and the Quest to Bring His Killers to Justice," described that sermon on the "Democracy Now!" news hour: "You can hear on the audiotapes of the radio broadcast the way that that applause built as he led up to that line saying, 'Stop the repression.' That then echoed throughout the radios around the country into every corner of El Salvador."
A day later, at a hospital chapel, a gunman shot Romero once in the heart, killing him.
Archbishop Oscar Romero gave that sermon as the U.S.-backed military violence against civilians that ravaged Central America in the 1980s and early 1990s was growing in intensity and brutality. Death squads allied with the right-wing Salvadoran junta dumped bodies on city streets nightly. Romero's assassination shocked the world and helped galvanize a global solidarity movement.
In 1980, one year after the revolutionary Sandinistas overthrew the U.S.-backed dictator in nearby Nicaragua, the Pentagon and the CIA intensified clandestine support for violent right-wing governments, arming and training their militaries and paramilitaries. Sadly, with the support of President Ronald Reagan, a reign of terror and mass slaughter swept the region, from Guatemala to Honduras to El Salvador, with hundreds of thousands of civilians tortured and killed, and countless villages razed.
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https://duluthreader.com/articles/2018/10/26/111626-the-final-sermon-of-st-oscar-romero-resonates
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