Oscar Romero and “Liberating Lent”
In the Spring of 2005, I completed my History 499 capstone paper, the writing proficiency portion of my undergraduate degree at Western Washington University. I focused on Latin American History during this program and, gratefully, was introduced to Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador and Liberation Theology through this process.
Fast forward 20 years, and St. Romero’s legacy still looms over my sense of calling as a pastor. Liberation Theology and leaders like Romero focus on this powerful truth found in the Scriptures: God is always preferential to the needs of the poor and the oppressed.
Leaders like Romero spoke out in times of government suppression. In 1970s El Salvador, subsistence farmers were removed from their lands and imprisoned or murdered for speaking out against the government’s takeover. Many clergy members bowed to the pressure of appeasing the rich and powerful. Romero, reluctantly at first, became one of the strongest voices for these voiceless masses — his country’s poor, disenfranchised people. Latin American movements for people’s liberation are deeply influenced by non-violent movements like the Black struggle for freedom, following in the footsteps of leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am fortunate to continue my lifelong journey with Oscar Romero this March. From March 19 to 27, I will travel to El Salvador with a group of fellow clergy and parishioners through an organization called Cristosal (http://www.cristosal.org). We will walk the streets of San Salvador, worship together, and learn and pray about how God’s justice propels us all to acts of loving liberation in our contexts.
This Lent, I will examine the Sunday lectionary texts through the lens of “How is this good news to the poor and the oppressed?” Additionally, on March 16 at 4 pm, we’ll host a viewing of “Romero,” the 1989 biopic that captures the pivotal moments of St. Romero’s ministry, including his martyrdom when he was shot while presiding at the Lord’s Table on March 24, 1980.
I covet your prayers and questions about this part of my journey, and I hope to share my love of St. Romero (canonized by the Catholic Church in 2018) with our congregation. His ministry and martyrdom for the poor can inspire us to prayerful action.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Seth
“Let us be today’s Christians. Let us not take fright at the boldness of today’s church. With Christ’s light, let us illuminate even the most hideous caverns of the human person: torture, jail, plunder, want, chronic illness. The oppressed must be saved, not with a revolutionary salvation, in mere human fashion, but with the holy revolution of the Son of Man, who dies on the cross to cleanse God’s image, which is soiled in today’s humanity, a humanity so enslaved, so selfish, so sinful.” ― Oscar A. Romero, The Violence of Love