Salvadoran archbishop slain in 1980 now martyr

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis decreed Tuesday that slain Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed in 1980 out of hatred for his Catholic faith, approving a martyrdom declaration that sets the stage for his beatification.

Francis, the first Latin American pope, approved the decree honoring one of the heroes of Latin American Christians at a meeting with the head of the Vatican’s saint-making office.

Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, was gunned down by rightist death squads March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in a hospital chapel. A human-rights campaigner, Romero had spoken out against repression by the Salvadoran army at the beginning of the country’s 1980-1992 civil war between the rightist government and leftist rebels.

His assassination presaged a conflict that killed nearly 75,000 people.

Romero’s sainthood cause had been held up by the Vatican for years, primarily because of opposition from conservative Latin American churchmen who feared his perceived association with liberation theology would embolden those who supported the movement that holds that Jesus’ teachings require followers to fight for social and economic justice.

Under then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had begun a crackdown on liberation theology, fearing what were seen as its Marxist excesses.

Francis said Romero’s case had been “blocked out of prudence” by the congregation, but that it had been “unblocked” now that there were no more doctrinal concerns.

Supporters of Romero say there never were any doctrinal issues and that the holdup was purely because of ecclesial politics in the Latin American church, which was badly divided between right and left in the years of rightist military dictatorships on the continent.

The decision to beatify Romero “is an invitation to peace, reconciliation, and brotherly solidarity,” said Monsignor Rafael Urrutia, vice chancellor of the Salvadoran bishops conference.

No date for the beatification has been set.

Unlike regular candidates for beatification, martyrs can reach the first step to possible sainthood without a miracle attributed to their intercession. A miracle is needed for canonization, however.