Readings
The weekly Bulletin and the bulletin article are available.
The Sunday homily is not available.
Today marks the canonization of Blessed Archbishop Oscar Romero, of San Salvador, along with Blessed Pope Paul VI & 5 others. You can read his last homily here, after which he was assassinated while celebrating Mass, March 24, 1980. On the day before, the Archbishop had continued his mission of preaching the Gospel by speaking up on behalf of the poor and voiceless in his country, who were being mercilessly slaughtered by a brutal military regime (supported by the United States). By preaching truth to power, Romero had put into practice that most fundamental element of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the preferential option for the poor. Why was it deemed necessary by the powerful to silence this servant of God? Consider these words he spoke in his homily on the day before his murder:
“I would like to make a special appeal to the men of the army, and specifically to the ranks of the National Guard, the police and the military. Brothers, you come from our own people. You are killing your own brother peasants when any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God which says, “Thou shalt not kill.” No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you recovered your consciences and obeyed your consciences rather than a sinful order. The church, the defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, of the person, cannot remain silent before such an abomination. We want the government to face the fact that reforms are valueless if they are to be carried out at the cost of so much blood. In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression.”
