Óscar Romero
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez
Archbishop and Human Rights Advocate · 1917–1980
Who is Óscar Romero?
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was Archbishop of San Salvador from 1977 until his assassination in 1980, and is one of the most widely revered figures in modern Salvadoran history. Ordained a priest in 1942, he was initially regarded as a cautious, conservative churchman when appointed archbishop, but the murder of his friend, the Jesuit priest Rutilio Grande, in 1977 marked a turning point that pushed him toward outspoken advocacy for the poor and against the escalating violence, death squads, and human rights abuses of the years leading into the Salvadoran Civil War. His weekly radio homilies, broadcast across the country, denounced repression and called on soldiers to stop killing their own people, making him both a moral authority for the poor and a target for the military government. On March 24, 1980, he was shot and killed while celebrating Mass at a hospital chapel in San Salvador, a killing widely attributed to a right-wing death squad. He was canonized a saint by Pope Francis in 2018 and is commemorated internationally as a modern martyr for social justice.
Sources: James R. Brockman, Romero: A Life (1989) · María López Vigil, Piezas para un retrato: Monseñor Romero (1993) · Vatican News, Canonization of Óscar Romero (14 October 2018)