Courtney McGrailViolence left untreated becomes a ‘cancer’, writes Rhina Guidos
Rhina Guidos
If there's a place in need of salvation at this moment, it’s this country named after Jesus Christ. Even as it gets ready to mark one of the biggest events in its history – the May 23 beatification of slain Archbishop Oscar Romero – El Salvador (‘the saviour’) is in the midst of one of its most violent periods.
March marked one of the deadliest months in a decade, with 481 people murdered, an average of 16 homicides a day, many committed by violent and ubiquitous gangs, said officials from the National Civil Police.
Almost as an affront, gang leaders in April said they would provide some momentary respite from the violence as a “gift” to the Salvadoran martyr on the occasion of his beatification.
That means little to those like Lourdes Molina, a 40-something mother of three teenage boys who lives each day in desperation and fear that her sons will be hurt or worse by the gangs that terrorise the six million who live in El Salvador.
The violence is “unbearable”, she said. The only thing left to hang onto is the divine intervention of Christ or the intercession of the soon-to-be Blessed Oscar Romero, she said.
Though the beatification brings an air of festivity in a country with little to celebrate, the long-term outlook for the future of young people in the country is dim, she said. No matter how much precaution she takes, violence will one day come knocking as it does for many Salvadorans, she fears.
If there was someone who knew about violence on the denizens of this country, it was Archbishop Romero. He, too, was a victim. He was fatally shot March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass.
Archbishop Romero was one of the more than 70,000 Salvadorans killed during the country’s armed conflict that lasted from 1979 until 1992. He pleaded with soldiers, often quoting the Gospel, to stop killing innocent civilians.
Even after the conflict came to an end, a series of factors – weapons left over from the war, an influx of gang members, and drugs – over time have contributed to the country’s present state: a designation as one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and in line to pass neighbouring Honduras as the most dangerous place on earth that is not in an official war.
Fr Oscar Rodriguez, a Salvadoran Franciscan who serves in the Holy Land but who was in El Salvador during the conflict, compares the situation of the nation’s rampant violence to a cancer that began long ago and went without intervention.
Had it been treated early, perhaps it would not have spread, he said. But lack of action by previous government administrations have made it difficult to remove this social “cancer,” he said.
Charting the journey: Over the years, Carlos Colorado (pictured) has become a modern prophet of sorts. His message is to extol the life of his hero Archbishop Romero. But his soapbox isn’t a street corner. For years, he has taken his message and shouted it from the digital soapbox of his “Super Martyrio” blog at www.polycarpi.blogspot.com.
That’s where he has explored the life, death and even the afterlife of Archbishop Romero. But his path toward sainthood has not been an easy one. And Colorado’s blog, which started in 2006, has chronicled some of the bumps.
A fight for truth
Fr Mauro Verzeletti, St Anthony of Padua Parish in Soyapango, outside of San Salvador, invoked Archbishop Romero in helping the country move forward preaching at Mass on Sunday.
There’s nothing left but to follow the Gospel, to fight for truth, transparency, an end to corruption, extortion and killings, all the things that God calls on people to reject, he said. No one knew this better than Archbishop Romero, who, like Christ, was assassinated, he said.
“Oscar Romero, a martyr, was hated for his faith, as one who loved the poor. He proclaimed the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and those who proclaim it are hated in this world, persecuted, maligned,” which happened to Archbishop Romero even after he was assassinated, Fr Verzeletti said.