Oscar Romero, Marxist Martyr: Pope Francis Honors Salvadoran Archbishop On Path To Sainthood

Pope Francis, the Vatican’s first Latin American leader, recognized the late Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero as a martyr of the Catholic faith. Romero was shot while performing mass on March 24, 1980. The right-wing death squads responsible for his death propelled a violent civil war that that killed 75,000 people. Unlike saints, martyrs in the Catholic tradition do not need to be recognized for any miracles. They simple have to be considered to have died in odium fidei--for the faith.

Recognized as a martyr, Romero can now be considered for beatification, that is, the church might count him as "blessed." Aside from being one of the Catholic church’s highest honors, beatification would allow local parishioners to publically invoke Romero. If "blessed," the Church would officially permit worshipers to pray to the dead Archbishop. Many Catholics believe that official and unofficial saints and blessed persons can grant them divine intercession through prayer.

Oscar Romero was murdered over 30 years ago, leaving some Central American Catholics in questioning why it took so long for Romero to be officially recognized. Some Catholics in El Salvador already revere him as an unofficial saint, and pray to him requesting intervention. The Anglican Church had already recognized Romero, placing a statue of him in the Westminster Cathedral, next to an image of Martin Luther King.

One reason might be the ambiguous definition of a martyrdom in odium fidei. Romero was likely killed by Catholics, so how could his death be considered a consequence of hatred for Catholic faith? However, as the AP points out, there is a recent precedent. In 2013 a reverend was recognized for his martyrdom at the hands of Cosa Nostra mafia members in Italy who were, allegedly, Catholic.

Yet there was another reason likely for the delay. During his life, Oscar Romero’s angered the church by endorsing of Liberation Theology, a Marxist-inspired Christian movement that was popular during the Cold War era. At the time, Latin American priests found themselves at the center of conflicts between U.S.-sponsored oligarchs and U.S.S.R.-backed peasant uprisings. The Catholic Church, which vehemently opposed Marxism and Communism, refused for many years to endorse individuals associated with those ideologies.

However, Pope Francis has advocated Romero’s martyrdom since at least last year.

“For me Romero is a man of God...there are no doctrinal problems and it is very important that the beatification [elevation to blessed status] be done quickly,” said the Pope, according the The Economist.

Confronting the issue of death for the faith and working around the Marxism issue, The Vatican’s official statement, it pointed out that his was killed during mass, and declared that:

“[Oscar Romero's death] was caused not just for political reasons, but also for the hatred of the faith that [...] unjustly and ceaselessly and cruelly cut down the poor and their defenders.”

Perhaps in a conciliatory move, Pope Francis also announced the martyrdom of three priests whose lives were claimed not by right-wing death squads, but by leftists. They were an Italian priest, Alessandro Dord, and two Polish priests, Miguel Tomaszek and Sbignei Strzalkowski. All three were murdered in 1991 by Marxist Shining Path Guerillas during Peru’s civil war.