Courtney McGrailArchbishop Romero’s sanctity was evident to all whom he met, writes Fr Ciaran Ó Nuanain
Fr Ciaran Ó Nuanain
St Maria Goretti wasn’t murdered because she was a Catholic but because motivated by her faith she defended her chastity. St Maximilian Kolbe wasn’t executed because he was a priest but because, inspired by the Gospel, he offered his life in place of another. Archbishop Oscar Romero wasn’t shot because he was a bishop but because motivated by the Gospel and Church teaching he defended the human rights of his people. He was a different kind of martyr.
Many would know Romero as a prophet but not know him as a man of deep prayer and an ascetic. If he hadn’t been a martyr, he would still have been a saint.
Twenty days before his martyrdom a reporter asked Romero where he found the inspiration for his apostolate and preaching. Romero answered him: “Your question is very timely, because I have just finished my spiritual exercises. If it were not for this prayer and this reflection whereby I try to stay united with God, I would be no more than what St Paul says: ‘a clashing cymbal’.”
Breviary
Fr Manuel Cordova, who lived with Romero for five years when he was a parish priest in San Miguel, remarks that he never met a man who read so much or prayed so much. Every day he used to read the whole breviary from matins to compline. He also prayed each day the 15 mysteries of the rosary and after siesta spent an hour before the Blessed Sacrament.
Msgr Ricardo Urioste, who was a close aide of Romero, tells the following anecdote: “I had several opportunities to become aware of his great prayerful spirit, of his soul rooted in God. In December 1979, Cardinal [Aloísio] Lorscheider of Brazil and an important man from the Salvadoran government were visiting him, and I was also present. They were conversing among themselves, and at one point, Archbishop Romero excused himself and left the room. The minutes passed by and he did not return.
“It occurred to me that the visitors had not come to see me but to see him, and, after a few minutes, I also excused myself and went to look for him. I went to his rooms, but he wasn’t there: I looked in the visiting room and he wasn’t there either. I looked out into the small garden of the hospital and I couldn’t find him. I decided to go back to the meeting and it suddenly occurred to me to look in the chapel.
“And there, inside, was the archbishop, kneeling in the third pew before the Blessed Sacrament which was exposed there. I approached him and said, ‘Monseñor, the gentlemen are waiting for you.’ ‘Yes, I’ll be right there’.
“My understanding is that he had gone to the Lord to consult him about how to respond to the cardinal and the government representative, and that he never said or did anything without first consulting God.”
Ascetic
Fr Manuel also witnessed Romero as an ascetic. He frequently used the discipline and when they used to go to the beach he often saw the marks left by a penitential chain which Romero used to wear above his knee. At times he used to put the top of a mineral bottle in his shoe to cause discomfort.
We can learn a lot about Romero from his spiritual diary which he kept from his days as a seminarian to a few days before he was assassinated. After making a retreat he made many resolutions, such as:
“On Fridays and Saturdays some small fasting or mortification at table in honour of Christ’s passion and of the Blessed Virgin. Abstain from sweets.”
“Wear a penitential chain from rising after siesta until after prayer.”
“Discipline on Friday nights.”
He also went to Confession every fortnight with the Jesuit, Fr Segundo Azcue. In fact he made a confession to him the day he was murdered.
Like any human being he feared the prospect of death, as is shown by his personal record of a conversation with Fr Azcue about a month before his murder: “My other fear is for my life. It is not easy to accept a violent death, which is very possible in these circumstances, and the Apostolic Nuncio to Costa Rica warned me of imminent danger just this week.
“You have encouraged me, reminding me that my attitude should be to hand my life over to God regardless of the end to which that life might come; that unknown circumstances can be faced with God’s grace; that God assisted the martyrs, and that if it comes to this I shall feel God very close as I draw my last breath; but what is more valiant than surrender in death is the surrender of one’s whole life – a life lived for God.”
Miracles, of course, are a classic indicator of sanctity, and Msgr Urioste has related the curious fate of some of Romero’s relics.
“After the assassination of Archbishop Romero in 1980, I remember telling the Carmelite sisters who were in charge of the Hospital of Divine Providence where Romero lived: ‘look, when they are embalming the bishop, do not permit them to throw his entrails anywhere. Get a hold of them when you seek them and guard them.’ The sisters did so and buried them in the little garden in front of the house where Archbishop Romero lived.
“A few months before the first visit of Pope John Paul II to El Salvador in 1983, they decided to build in that little garden, a small monument to the Virgin of Fatima and hired some masons to dig the foundation. There they encountered a box within which was a plastic bag with the remains of Romero and took it out. They discovered that the blood was still liquid and that the entrails were in good condition too. This does not necessarily mean that it was a miracle; it could have been a natural phenomenon due to any other reason.
“But the truth is that we took a little blood and when the Pope came we showed it to him. However, Archbishop [Arturo] Rivera did not want to give publicity to this very special event because Romero’s enemies would say we were trying to make him a saint etc., However it really and truly happened.”
Last words
The last words on this subject should probably be left to Archbishop Romero himself:
“Inside the heart of every man there is something like a small intimate cell to which God comes down for a private conversation. And it is there where man decides his own destiny, his own role in the world. We live too much outside of ourselves. Very few people really look inside themselves, and that’s why there are so many problems.
“If all of us who are burdened by so many problems were to go into that little cell right now, and from there, hear the Lord’s voice speaking to us in our conscience, how much could each of us do to improve the environment, society and the family we live in?”
Fr Ciaran Ó Nuanain is a Franciscan priest based in El Salvador.