Oscar Romero

Oscar Romero was installed as the archbishop of El Salvador on February 22, 1977; these times were at the height of growing social and political tension in El Salvador. He was appointed to this position because the El Salvadoran government wanted an archbishop that would agree with their way of doing things, not interfering with the way things were run. Romero was a bookworm, buried in books and theology of the world. No one ever expected him to make a stand up against the corruption like he did. The poor never expected someone to take their side; they never expected to have a voice. And the rich never thought he would ‘betray’ El Salvador by speaking against everything it supposedly stood for, which was basically, a country governed by lies, money, and greedy and power-hungry people. The state and the church wanted t someone who would sit back an

nd let the church be an accessory to all the murders and horrors the El Salvadorian government was committing and commissioning. Sit by and watch, as the rich got richer, the poor got poorer and social injustices riveted the country. Someone who wouldn’t make waves, someone who was more interested in books and the like than the people of El Salvador.

In the beginning, Romero did exactly was expected and asked of him. It took the murders one of his dearest friends, a vocal and very public, fellow priest whom was outspoken in denouncing the injustices within El Salvador, its economy and society, as well as an old man and young boy in an attack whilst on a road, to show him that the El Salvadoran government was corrupt and fraudulent, commissioning and killing people for political convenience. Speak against them and you would pay with you