Romero’s influence continues to resonate in this Central American country where thousands of lives have been destroyed through decades of extortion and murder committed by the gangs.
It’s as if Joyce Valencia could still hear Saint Oscar Romero’s voice.
“I met him when I was a little girl,” the 61-year-old Salvadoran said. “We used to gather around our radio with our grandma to listen to him. And, even now, listening to him encourages us to move forward.”
For a few years now, Valencia has joined the yearly pilgrimage that kicks off in El Salvador each Aug. 1 to honor Romero, who was named a saint by Pope Francis in 2018. According to the committee that organizes the event, up to 3,000 pilgrims will cover 160 kilometers (100 miles) in three days, traveling from San Salvador, the capital, to Ciudad Barrios, where Romero was born in 1917.
Already known to many as “Saint Romero of the Americas,” San Salvador’s archbishop was beloved among the working class and poor for defending them against repression by the army. But he was loathed by conservative sectors who saw him as aligned with leftist causes as the country descended into a 1980-1992 civil war. Romero was murdered as he celebrated Mass on March 24, 1980, in a hospital chapel. The day before his assassination, he sent a blunt message to the country’s military in his Sunday homily: “In the name of God and these suffering people, I implore you, I order you, in the name of God, to cease the repression. ”
Romero’s influence continues to resonate in this Central American country where thousands of lives have been destroyed through decades of extortion and murder committed by the gangs.
“He was the most beloved and hated man of his time,” Rosa Chávez said. “It was exceptional to watch him in his struggles, his anguish, his doubts and his tribulations until he gave his life on the altar.”
Since March 2022, President Nayib Bukele’s security forces have cracked down harshly on gangs, arresting more than 81,000 people suspected of criminal involvement without due process. Human rights groups say innocent people are also being detained.
“Monsignor Romero is of great importance during these times, under the regime, as many human rights are being violated and very few institutions advocate for them,” said Wilbert Sánchez, 21, to a university student whose aunt was detained during Bukele’s crackdown and freed after one year, due to lack of evidence against her.
“I think if he (Romero) were here, things would be different,” Sánchez said. “He would make a change, as he did in the past, when he tried to intercede for the peasants and others affected by the government.”
Soon after 5 a.m. Mass, Sánchez joined dozens in the pilgrimage, his third since friends invited him to tag along in 2022. “You can feel an extraordinary connection during the journey,” Sánchez said. “What encourages me the most is faith. And learning more about our country’s only saint.”
Catholic leaders first organized Romero’s pilgrimage in 2017, when the archbishop would have turned 100. The route, said Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez, who was Romero’s disciple and friend, is meant to unite the Saint’s “tomb”, San Salvador, with his “crib”, Ciudad Barrios.
“He was the most beloved and hated man of his time,” Rosa Chávez said. “It was exceptional to watch him in his struggles, his anguish, his doubts and his tribulations until he gave his life on the altar.”
According to the cardinal, Salvadorans participate in the pilgrimage for three main reasons: being at peace with Romero after discovering that government criticisms of him back in the 1980s were “slanders”, to thank him for miracles or favors, and to simply enjoy the spiritual experience of the journey.
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