Bishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador was originally considered a conservative Vatican appointment, but by 1980 he had become so outraged by the spiraling violence in El Salvador’s so called dirty war that he spoke out against it. No doubt that’s why the right wing military of El Salvador found it necessary to assassinate him.
"The peasants you kill are your own brothers and sisters," Romero told the military in a sermon broadcast on radio just days before he was killed. "When you hear the voice of the man commanding you to kill, remember instead the voice of God. Thou shalt not kill."
Romero was assassinated in the middle of conducting a mass. At Romero's funeral, in front of the cathedral where his body now lies, army snipers opened fire on a weeping crowd of 100,00, killing 40. Within weeks, all-out war was on. By the end of the decade, 75,000 were dead, 600,000 had been displaced inside the country, and more than one million had gone into exile.
Reporting for PBS Front Line series, Joe Rubin recently visited Romero's tomb and wrote this account:
“In the basement of the cathedral, a steady stream of visitors make pilgrimages to the coffin every day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., crossing themselves and usually spending a few contemplative moments. Although it would seem a sad place, surprisingly, I noticed a resilient somewhat joyful expression on many of the visitors. I asked one man, who had made a pilgrimage from neighboring Guatemala, why the coffin says in bold letters simply "87 years. " Romero was killed at the age of 64, and I found the discrepancy confusing. "That's how old he is today," the man told me. "But he's dead," I responded. "Not to us," he said.
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