María Hilda, witness of St. Oscar Romero and Rutilio Grande: "We cannot keep silent about what we have seen".For the martyrdom event to take place, a sufficient, apt and qualified cause is necessary, both in the martyr and in the persecutor. And this sufficient, apt and qualified cause for an authentic martyrdom event to take place is only the faith, considered under a double aspect: in the persecutor because he hates it and in the martyr because he loves it. In fact, the persecutor who murders out of hatred for the faith is understandable only in the light of the love for the same faith that animates the martyr.
The cause of martyrdom
In speaking here of faith as the cause of martyrdom, we do not mean only the theological virtue of faith, but also every supernatural, theological virtue (faith, hope and charity) and cardinal virtue (prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance), and its subspecies that refer to Christ. Therefore, not only the confession of faith, but also of every other infused virtue is sufficient cause for martyrdom. Therefore, Benedict XIV synthesizes the whole content of faith as a cause of the event of martyrdom in a formula, affirming that the cause of martyrdom is constituted by the "fides credendorum vel agendorum", inasmuch as among the truths of faith "aliae sunt theoricae, aliae practicae".
Witness of faith
All this leads us to think with Monsignor Fernando Sáenz Lacalle, Archbishop of San Salvador in the year 2000, in his homily on the twentieth anniversary of the martyrdom death of Oscar RomeroGod, omnipotent and infinite Goodness, knows how to draw good things even from the most nefarious actions of men. The horrible crime that took the life of our beloved predecessor brought him an inestimable fortune: to die as a 'witness to the faith at the foot of the altar'".
In this way, the life of Monsignor Romero is transformed into a Mass that merges, at the hour of the offertory, with the Sacrifice of Christ... He offered his life to God: his childhood years in Ciudad Barrios, his seminary years in San Miguel or his years as a student in Rome. His priestly ordination in Rome on April 4, 1942. His eventful return to his homeland, leaving Rome on August 15, 1943 and arriving in San Miguel on December 24 of the same year, spending a period, together with his companion, the young priest Rafael Valladares, in the concentration camps in Cuba, followed by another period in the hospital of the same city.
Pastor of Anamorós and then of Santo Domingo in the city of San Miguel, with multiple responsibilities that he faced with commitment and sacrifice. Later, in 1967, San Salvador: secretary of the Episcopal Conference of El Salvador and then auxiliary bishop of Monsignor Luis Chávez y González. In 1974 he was named bishop of Santiago de Maria and on February 22, 1977 he took possession of the archiepiscopal see of San Salvador, having been elevated to it on the 7th of the same month. He occupied this see until his meeting with the Father on March 24, 1980.
These quick biographical details will help us in our endeavor to offer to the Most Holy Trinity the earthly existence of Monsignor Romero together with the life of Jesus Christ. We offer an intense life, rich in nuances; we offer the figure of a pastor in whom we discover the enormous depth of his life, of his interiority, of his spirit of union with God, root, source and summit of all his existence, not only from his archiepiscopal life, but also from his life as a student and young priest. A life that flourished until he became the "witness of faith at the foot of the altar" because his roots were well grounded in God, in Him he found the strength of his vitality, through Him, with Him and in Him he also lived his archiepiscopal life between the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God. "Monsignor Romero, a humble and timid man, but possessed by God, managed to do what he always wanted to do: great things, but along the paths that the Lord had marked out for him, paths that he discovered in his intense and intimate union with Christ, the model and source of all holiness".
Obedient to God's will
Those of us who knew Monsignor Romero from his first years of priesthood are witnesses that he kept his ministry alive by giving absolute primacy to a nourished spiritual life, which he never neglected because of his diverse activities, always maintaining a particular and profound harmony with Christ, the Good Shepherd, through the liturgy, personal prayer, the tenor of life and the practice of the Christian virtues. In this way he wanted to be configured to Christ, Head and Shepherd, participating in his own "pastoral charity" through his gift of himself to God and the Church, sharing the gift of Christ and in his image, to the point of giving his life for the flock.
Monsignor Romero was a priest who carried a holy life from the seminary. And although there were, evidently, by human nature, sins in his life, all of them were purified by the shedding of his blood in the act of martyrdom.
I do not want to offer a "light" image of Monsignor Romero, but rather, after thirty years of work as diocesan postulator of his cause for canonization, I wish to share my point of view, my appreciation of a good shepherd bishop who was always obedient to the will of God with delicate docility to his inspirations; who lived according to the heart of God, not only the three years of his archiepiscopal life, but his whole life.
God gave us in him an authentic prophet, the defender of the human rights of the poor and the good shepherd who gave his life for them; and he taught us that it is possible to live our Christian faith according to the heart of God. This is what Pope Francis affirmed in the Apostolic Letter of beatification when he pointed out, through Cardinal Amato, on May 23, 2015: "Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, bishop and martyr, pastor according to the heart of Christ, evangelizer and father of the poor, heroic witness of the kingdom of God, kingdom of justice, of fraternity, of peace".
Diocesan Postulator for the cause of canonization of Monsignor Óscar Romero
