40 Facts About Oscar Romero

Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador.

Oscar Romero served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, the Titular Bishop of Tambeae, as Bishop of Santiago de Maria, and finally as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador.

Oscar Romero was declared a martyr by Pope Francis on 3 February 2015, paving the way for his beatification on 23 May 2015.

Oscar Romero actively denounced violations of the human rights of the most vulnerable people and defended the principles of protecting lives, promoting human dignity and opposing all forms of violence.

Archbishop Jose Luis Escobar Alas, one of Oscar Romero's successors as Metropolitan Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Salvador, El Salvador, asked Pope Francis to proclaim Oscar Romero a Doctor of the Church, which is an acknowledgement from the church that his religious teachings were orthodox and had a significant impact on its philosophy and theology.

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Outside of Catholicism, Oscar Romero is honored by other Christian denominations, including the Church of England and Anglican Communion, through the Calendar in Common Worship, as well as in at least one Lutheran liturgical calendar.

Oscar Romero is one of the ten 20th-century martyrs depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey in London.

Oscar Romero was born on 15 August 1917 to Santos Romero and Guadalupe de Jesus Galdamez in Ciudad Barrios in the San Miguel department of El Salvador.

On 11 May 1919, at the age of one, Oscar Romero was baptized into the Catholic Church by the priest Cecilio Morales.

Oscar Romero entered the local public school, which offered only grades one through three.

When finished with public school, Oscar Romero was privately tutored by a teacher, Anita Iglesias, until the age of thirteen.

Oscar Romero's father wanted to offer his son the skill of a trade, because in El Salvador studies seldom led to employment Romero broached the idea of studying for the priesthood, which did not surprise those who knew him.

Oscar Romero entered the minor seminary in San Miguel at the age of thirteen.

Oscar Romero left the seminary for three months to return home when his mother became ill after the birth of her eighth child; during this time he worked with two of his brothers in a gold mine near Ciudad Barrios.

Oscar Romero remained in Italy to obtain a doctoral degree in Theology, specializing in ascetical theology and Christian perfection according to Luis de la Puente.

Oscar Romero traveled home with a good friend, Father Valladares, who was doing doctoral work in Rome.

Oscar Romero was first assigned to serve as a parish priest in Anamoros, but then moved to San Miguel where he worked for over 20 years.

Oscar Romero promoted various apostolic groups, started an Alcoholics Anonymous group, helped in the construction of San Miguel's cathedral, and supported devotion to Our Lady of Peace.

Oscar Romero was later appointed rector of the inter-diocesan seminary in San Salvador.

Emotionally and physically exhausted by his work in San Miguel, Oscar Romero took a retreat in January 1966 where he visited a priest for confession and a psychiatrist.

Oscar Romero was diagnosed by the psychiatrist as having obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and by priests with scrupulosity.

Oscar Romero became the director of the archdiocesan newspaper Orientacion, which became fairly conservative while he was editor, defending the traditional Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

On 25 April 1970, Oscar Romero was appointed an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of San Salvador and as the titular bishop of Tambeae.

On 3 February 1977, Oscar Romero was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador, assuming the position on 22 February.

On 12 March 1977, Rutilio Grande, a Jesuit priest and personal friend of Oscar Romero who had been creating self-reliance groups among the poor, was assassinated.

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On 11 May 1979, Oscar Romero met with Pope John Paul II and unsuccessfully attempted to obtain a Vatican condemnation of the Salvadoran military regime for committing human rights violations and its support of death squads, and expressed his frustration in working with clergy who cooperated with the government.

Oscar Romero was encouraged by Pope John Paul II to maintain episcopal unity as a top priority.

Oscar Romero denounced the persecution of members of the Catholic Church who had worked on behalf of the poor:.

Oscar Romero was a strong advocate of the spiritual charism of Opus Dei.

Oscar Romero received weekly spiritual direction from a priest of the Opus Dei movement.

On 24 March 1980, Archbishop Oscar Romero delivered a sermon in which he called on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians, to obey God's higher order and to stop carrying out the government's repression and violations of basic human rights.

That evening, Oscar Romero celebrated Mass at a small chapel at Hospital de la Divina Providencia, a church-run hospital specializing in oncology and care for the terminally ill.

Oscar Romero finished his sermon, stepped away from the lectern, and took a few steps to stand at the center of the altar.

Oscar Romero died at the Chapel of Hospital de la Divina Providencia in San Salvador.

Oscar Romero was buried in the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador.

In March 2005, Vincenzo Paglia, the Vatican official in charge of the process, announced that Oscar Romero's cause had cleared a theological audit by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at the time headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and that beatification could follow within six months.

Beatification of Oscar Romero was held in San Salvador on 23 May 2015 in the Plaza Salvador del Mundo under the Monumento al Divino Salvador del Mundo.

Pope Francis approved this miracle on 6 March 2018, allowing for Oscar Romero to be canonized and the date was announced at a consistory of cardinals held on 19 May The canonization was celebrated in Rome's Saint Peter's Square on 14 October 2018.

Previously, there had been hopes that Oscar Romero would be canonized during a possible papal visit to El Salvador on 15 August 2017 – the centennial of the late bishop's birth – or that he could be canonized in Panama during World Youth Day in 2019.

Oscar Romero was the first Salvadoran to be raised to the altars; the first martyred archbishop of America, the first to be declared a martyr after the Second Vatican Council; and the first native saint of Central America, Oscar Romero had already been included on the Anglican Church's list of official saints and on the Lutheran Church's liturgical calendar.