Oscar Romero
Shot on 24 March 1980 while celebrating Mass in a hospital chapel in San Salvador, the Archbishop was killed a day after urging soldiers to stop repression.
Overview
Oscar Romero was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977 and was considered a cautious conservative, but the murder of his friend the Jesuit priest Rutilio Grande and mounting state violence turned him into an outspoken defender of the poor and of human rights. His weekly radio sermons denounced killings and disappearances. In his homily on 23 March 1980 he called on soldiers to obey God rather than orders to kill. The next day he was shot at the altar. In 1993 the UN Truth Commission for El Salvador concluded that Major Roberto DAubuisson had ordered the killing. The civil war intensified after his death. Pope Francis canonized Romero in 2018.
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