[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 37 (Tuesday, April 9, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E454-E455]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING MONSIGNOR OSCAR A. ROMERO

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 9, 2002

  Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Monsignor Oscar A. 
Romero, El Salvador's patron of peace, justice and liberation, on the 
22nd Anniversary of his assassination. Monsignor Romero, Archbishop of 
El Salvador, dedicated his life to the social and economic liberation 
of the poor. It is an honor for

[[Page E455]]

me to pay my respects to the legacy of such a powerful community 
organizer and advocate.
  Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero was born on August 15, 1917 in San 
Miguel, a small neighborhood in the city of Barrios, El Salvador. After 
three years of public schooling and about four more years of private 
tutoring, Monsignor Romero was apprenticed to a town carpenter. Soon 
after his apprenticeship began, his strong faith and love for the 
Catholic Church led him to forsake his training as a carpenter to 
attend the seminary in the city of San Miguel. He continued his 
theological studies at the national seminary in San Salvador and 
completed them at the Gregorian University in Rome. On April 4, 1942, 
Monsignor Romero was ordained as a priest to his home country and began 
his journey as a crusader for the people of El Salvador.
  A brilliant career in the Church soon followed, as Monsignor Romero 
became rector of the interdiocesan seminary of San Salvador, then 
general secretary of the Bishops' Conference and executive secretary of 
the Episcopal Council for Central America and Panama. He continued to 
move up within the Church hierarchy, and on February 22, 1977, he was 
appointed archbishop of San Salvador.
  Monsignor Romero took over the archdiocese of El Salvador at a time 
of social conflict. A brutal civil war was taking the lives of 3,000 
people a month. Monsignor Romero became personally acquainted with the 
bloodshed when two of his priests were murdered, He immediately 
demanded an inquiry into the events that had led up to the death of the 
priests and set up a permanent commission for the defense of human 
rights.
  Monsignor Romero became an outspoken critic of the ruthless 
oligarchic state and a defender of liberty and justice for the lower 
class of El Salvador. Sunday after Sunday hundreds of people flocked to 
his masses to listen to his message. As the archbishop of San Salvador, 
he also sought to inform the world about all the people who had been 
tortured, slaughtered, and of those who had ``disappeared'' in El 
Salvador. As the civil war intensified and Monsignor Romero became a 
popular figure for the poor, he also became a target of attacks by the 
ruling class. However, his commitment to a peaceful resolution to the 
two-decade-old war was unfaltering and the world took notice. In 1979, 
Monsignor Romero was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his 
outspoken defense of human rights.
  Monsignor Oscar A. Romero demonstrated extraordinary courage and an 
unyielding determination to do what is right, true, and just. He 
demanded peace, a peace that could only be found in human rights and 
assurances of basic dignities. In the face of injustice, Romero took it 
upon himself to use the Church as a light of hope and to challenge the 
oppression of the Salvadoran military regime.
  On Sunday, March 23, 1980, Monsignor Romero directed his homily to 
the military from the San Salvador cathedral where he pleaded with them 
to stop the killing and to cease the repression in the name of God. 
Sensing his imminent death, Monsignor Romero said,

       I have been the target of frequent death threats. I must 
     say as a Christian, that I do not believe in death without 
     resurrection. If they kill me, I will be reborn in the 
     Salvadoran people . . . hence I offer God my blood for the 
     redemption and for the resurrection of El Salvador . . . let 
     my blood be the seed of freedom and the sign of hope that 
     soon will be a reality.

  Sadly on March 24, 1980, Monsignor Romero was killed by a bullet 
aimed to his heart, as he was giving mass in the chapel of the 
Carmelitas Nuns hospital in San Salvador. A single bullet transformed 
him into a martyr. His life was taken, but his voice could not be 
silenced. Monsignor Romero was and continues to be a beacon of hope in 
a country ravaged by poverty, injustice, and sorrow.
  Today, I join the Los Angeles City Council, the Los Angeles County 
Board of Supervisors, the California State Assembly, Clinica Monsignor 
Oscar A. Romero, and the 22nd Anniversary Commemoration Committee, in 
paying homage to Monsignor Oscar A. Romero and to celebrate his life 
and legacy.

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