Óscar Romero
Archbishop of San Salvador from 1977, whose Sunday homilies reported the killings of El Salvador’s civil conflict and called for them to stop. He was shot dead while celebrating Mass on 24 March 1980 and canonised by the Catholic Church in 2018.
Óscar Arnulfo Romero Galdámez was born at Ciudad Barrios in El Salvador on 15 August 1917 and ordained priest in Rome on 4 April 1942. He was named auxiliary bishop of San Salvador in 1970, bishop of Santiago de María in 1974 and archbishop of San Salvador on 3 February 1977 (Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, profile of Óscar Romero).
His homilies carried the reports of human rights violations gathered by the legal aid office of his archdiocese, and the United Nations truth commission records that right-wing civilian and military circles came to see him as a dangerous enemy (UN Truth Commission for El Salvador, From Madness to Hope (S/25500), pp. 127–128). On 23 March 1980 he appealed to soldiers and police to stop the repression (Romero, Homily of 23 March 1980, p. 20). He was killed the next day while celebrating Mass (Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, profile of Óscar Romero); the commission found that former Major Roberto D’Aubuisson gave the order (UN Truth Commission for El Salvador, From Madness to Hope (S/25500), p. 131). See the Assassination of Óscar Romero. The Catholic Church beatified him as a martyr on 23 May 2015 and canonised him on 14 October 2018 (Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, profile of Óscar Romero).
In the timeline
- 24 March 1980, firm dateThe Assassination of Óscar Romero
On 24 March 1980 the archbishop of San Salvador is shot dead while celebrating Mass, the day after he had called on soldiers to stop the repression. A UN truth commission later finds that former Major Roberto D’Aubuisson gave the order.