Archbishop Oscar Romero

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Archbishop Oscar Romero

• Became archbishop of San Salvador in 1977
• Initially cautious, not political
• Became outspoken critic of abuses in El Salvador
• Murdered while saying mass in 1980 by a
  paramilitary death squad assassin
• former military captain, likely trained in U.S.

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You can tell the people that if they succeed in
killing me, that I forgive and bless those who
do it. Hopefully, they will realize they are
wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the
church of God, which is the people, will never
perish.
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El Salvador

• Civil War 1980-1992
• 75,000 Salvadorans killed
• Thousands disappeared
• Why?
• Tremendous poverty and inequality
• Short history of democracy (colonialization)
• Fight between capitalists and Marxists

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Liberation Theology

• Focuses on how Jesus message liberates people,
  especially the poor
• Salvation not just in the future
• Identifies Jesus presence with the poor
• Critiques religion for supporting the powerful
  and condoning suffering and injustice
• Focus is on practice
• Orthopraxis, not just orthodoxy

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Basis for liberation theology

• Second Vatican Council (1962-65)
• Read signs of the times
• Latin American bishops conferences
• Medellín, Colombia (1968)
• Puebla, Mexico (1979)
• World Synod of Bishops (1971)
• Action on behalf of justice and participation in
  the transformation of the world fully appear to
  us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching
  of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the
  Church's mission for the redemption of the human
  race and its liberation from every oppressive
  situation.

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Jon Sobrino

• Spanish Jesuit who has spent most of his adult
  life in El Salvador
• Six of his Jesuit brothers murdered in 1989

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The Crucified Peoples

• Why the name? Is it justified?
• This injustice leads to death
• Inflicted by causes
• Has religious significance God is present
• Crucified peoples are principle sign of the
  times (51)
• Main principle God can be found in the present
  signs of the times (Vat. II)

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Yahwehs suffering servant

• Crucified people and Christ, Yahwehs servant,
  refer to and explain each other (p. 51)
• Comes from Isaiah (52-53, etc.)
• Gods chosen servant
• Experiences great suffering
• His death frees people (By his wounds we are
  healed, Isa. 53)
• Latin Americans in poverty bear strong resemblance

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Questions

• Is it appropriate to compare the suffering of El
  Salvador to Jesus?
• How does this comparison shed light on who Jesus
  is? On who the poor of Latin American are?
• How does this image help us to grasp our deepest
  reality (53)?

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Questions

• What is the salvation that the crucified peoples
  bring? How is this different from other ways of
  thinking about salvation?
• Does this reading reveal truth?
• Does it motivate you to act (orthopraxis)?