Remembering Romero After 9/11: Naming the Powers
Otto Maduro, Chair of Drew University's PhD Program in Religion and Society
March 23, 2004

Romero was not a victim of armed violence, according to Otto Maduro. "He was another victim of a global system of profits and privileges where those who don't learn early and well to toe the line ... end up subject to harsher means to make them toe the line," Maduro explained. Maduro warned the audience that the feasibility and hope for social, economic and political changes have all but waned in important sectors and regions of the Americas and the world, partly as a result of free-market fundamentalism. To remember Romero after 9/11, he challenged attendees to shed old answers and share "the weight of our most pressing, deep, feared questions."

To download the whole lecture, please click here.

Archbishop Romero: Martyr of the Option for the Poor
Don Samuel Ruiz Garcia, Bishop Emeritus of San Cristobal de Las Casas
March 18, 2003

The Catholic Church's often-mentioned preferential option for the poor "is not optional," said Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia. Ruiz, the retired bishop of Chiapas, Mexico, quoted Romero as saying, "the Christian who doesn't want to live this commitment of solidarity with the poor is not worthy of being called a Christian." The importance of solidarity with the poor is "constitutive of the Church," said Ruiz, noting that Romero came to insist upon a faith linked to social justice. He praised Romero as a man ready to recognize his own faults and ask for forgiveness and as a man who saw the need to counter violence by countering its roots in social injustice.

To read a more detailed story, please click here.

To read and download the whole lecture in Spanish, please click here.

Monsignor Romero: A Bishop for the Third Millennium
Oscar Andrés Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga, SDB, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras
March 19, 2002

"Much has been said about Monsignor Romero as a prophet and a martyr, and the testimony of his life has, without a doubt, inspired millions of men and women of all ages, even beyond the Church’s borders. Here I wish to take up another, less publicized aspect of his life but one which has come to the fore after the recent General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, the theme of which was: “The Bishop, Servant of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World.” I would like to share with you some contours of Monsignor Romero’s rich personality, which will serve as a basis for presenting him as a model bishop for the third millennium."

To read and download the whole lecture, please click here.

Romero of the Americas: Seen Through Paraguayan Eyes
Margaret Hebblethwaite, Latin American Correspondent for the London Tablet
March 20, 2001

"Who, then, is this great Romero of the Americas, and why does he matter so much to me? I first heard of him the day after he was shot, in March 1980. At the time, I was studying at the Gregorian University in Rome. We came into class that morning to be told that a bishop had been shot, and that there would be prayers for him in the big Aula during the morning break. I went along with my classmates, not knowing anything about the archbishop but struck by something in the atmosphere. I don’t expect there were many there who knew much about Romero. But there was something both deeply committed and very matter-of-fact about all those people — priests and sisters from mission territories all around the world, some from quite dangerous places — singing the Salve Regina and praying together for a brother murdered in the course of his pastoral work. As I went back to class, something in me had begun to respond to Romero."

To read and download the whole lecture, please click here.

Monseñor Oscar Romero: Human Rights Apostle
Roberto Cuéllar M., Executive Director, Interamerican Institute of Human Rights
March 21, 2000

"We were waiting for him at the cancer clinic, where he lived during his three years as Archbishop of San Salvador, but he arrived too late to join our working lunch. We talked by telephone and, for the last time, I heard his voice. It was 3:30 in the afternoon of March 24, 1980. Monseñor Romero had asked me to meet with a high-level delegation from the National Conference of Bishops, the National Council of Churches, and the United States Catholic Conference. His final interview, focusing on the violence then over-whelming El Salvador, was with these same delegates. A few minutes after 6:30 p.m. two nuns from the clinic shouted the news of his assassination through the main door of the Jesuits’ Academy in San Salvador. I ran to the building where he had been taken. Just by lifting his left arm, I knew that he was already dead."

To read and download the whole lecture, please click here.

Archbishop Romero and His Commitment to the Church
Margaret Swedish, Religious Task Force on Central America and Mexico
March 16, 1999

"The pastor, the bishop understood as a “good shepherd” in a real gospel sense, was sharing a word that ignited faith in the hearts of his hearers. The institutional leader embodied in his role as bishop and in the structures of the archdiocese a word that his people recognized as the authentic reflection of their own truth. The institution was put at the service of this truth. The result was a flourishing, vibrant Church, willing to follow Jesus even to death on the cross."

To read and download the whole lecture, please click here.

The Empowering Spirit of Archbishop Romero: A Personal Testimony
Rubén Zamora, Secretary-General, Democratic Convergence of El Salvador
March 20, 1995

"All of that changed when Romero became the bishop of Santiago de Maria and began to know the poor not simply as beggars in the street but as working people struggling to survive inhuman conditions. His diocese was flooded every year during the coffee-picking season with peasants who came from all over the country to work in the cafetales, and who, after a hard day’s labor, would have to sleep on the ground. Appalled, Romero provided them with shelter in empty seminary buildings and began to wonder how the owners of the coffee fincas — Christian families who would go to church on Sundays and partake of the Eucharist — could treat their workers in such a manner. These reflections led him to examine the structural roots of poverty."

To read and download the whole lecture, please click here.

Martyrs, Heroes, and the Contemporary Church: Latin America and the United States
Archbishop Luciano Mendes de Almeida, SJ, President, Brazilian Conference of Catholic Bishops
March 24, 1988

"Sisters and brothers, I was eyewitness to the facts of March 30, 1980 which happened at the funeral of Bishop Romero in San Salvador. Suddenly we heard and saw the explosion of a big bomb in the square in front of the Cathedral. We have been witness to the suffering and anguish of the Salvadorian people, but also to their courage and maturity. El Salvador has suffered a long agony. The assassination of Bishop Romero on March 24, 1980, shocked the world. He was a faithful witness to the Gospel and he sealed that witness with his blood. Bishop Romero’s life is a vivid reminder of the price that Christians are sometimes called upon to pay for their faith."

To read and download the whole lecture, please click here.