catholics-from-el-salvador

"The families of gang members and members of our community, along with the population in general will be present. This is an ecumenical event which aims to support the efforts for peace that the Catholic Church launched with the truce among the gangs. The important thing is that we have started the process, and that this has resulted in a reduction of the murders. There are some groups who have not yet decided to participate in this process, but we are working hard also for this reason, in order to integrate these groups."

"The bishop succeeded in driving out of the state the opponents of his theocratic ideas, and in bringing about a change in the government; in fact, everything had been conceded him, and his influence was paramount. And yet he was not satisfied. He would have the Salvadorans believe him a deity, but they arrived at the conclusion that by a great fatality their first bishop had turned out to be a pernicious revolutionist."

"In the case of Archbishop Romero, Providence left very clear marks for who is sincerely seeking the truth about his life and death."

"Here in Utah all the community – Anglos, Hispanics and others alike – are together celebrating and participating as one whole community. When you get over the language barrier and take away the shame and you are not afraid, all the divisions get erased. I recognize all the contributions that they make to our Universal Church in their local churches, and for that I am also thankful. Now here in Utah and then when I am in El Salvador, I will continue saying "Animo" – you are doing good."

"American aid will end and we'll still be poor."

"There is the sense here that a saint has died."

"Since my childhood, I've known persecution. I have known hunger. But God gives you strength in the worst moments and even during them, we experienced moments of happiness. Without God, I don't know where we'd be. He was the panacea."

"I will keep in mind not to forget my roots, to continue walking with the poor, humble and immigrants. I am at the service of the entire archdiocese, not just Hispanics, (and) willing to work with other ethnic communities."

"This is humanity moving around. For a global problem, we need a global solution."

"I sincerely don't think the solution to the problem of gangs is in the Church's hands. Society as a whole and the government, with the support of various social sectors, have the responsibility."

"We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us. The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence of love, of brotherhood,the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for work."

"While predicting the future is a rare gift, testifying for the truth is a duty for every woman and man of conscience. …A prophet, Romero added, is one who has an “undisturbed conscience.” This is an interesting statement. Only those who are firmly rooted in conscience as their moral compass may calmly tell the truth about injustice and corruption, no matter the risks. And risks there are since prophets easily make enemies."

"The real lesson of Romero is that there are no legitimate reasons to deny [civil or natural] rights. His government in his time believed that [civil] rights could be somewhat “suspended” to protect El Salvador from Communist influences coming from the Soviet Union via Cuba and Nicaragua. Romero was certainly not an admirer of the Soviet Union, but believed there should be other ways of protecting his country, not suspending [civil] rights. He taught us that those who advocate for [civil or natural] rights are “for” their countries, not “against” them. …Romero wrote that religious persecution happens because “truth is always persecuted,” and that God blesses those who protest and fight for freedom. But they should know they should suffer, because “pain is the money that buys freedom.” …Romero’s key teaching, that there is no reason good enough to justify the violation of [civil or natural] rights, is relevant for both religious liberty and the Tai Ji Men case. There are governments that claim that limiting religious liberty is necessary to protect social stability or the harmony of the country. Romero’s message is that this is not a valid justification. [Civil or natural] rights protection defines what a legitimate social stability is, rather than the other way around."

"For many years, repression, torture and murder were carried on in El Salvador by dictators installed and supported by our government... The story was virtually never covered. By the late 1970s, however, the US government began to be concerned about a couple of things... In El Salvador in the 1970s, there was a growth of what were called "popular organizations"-peasant associations, cooperatives, unions, Church-based Bible study groups that evolved into self-help groups, etc. That raised the threat of democracy. In February 1980, the Archbishop of EI Salvador, Oscar Romero, sent a letter to President Carter in which he begged him not to send military aid to the junta that ran the country. He said such aid would be used to "sharpen injustice and repression against the people’s organizations" which were struggling "for respect for their most basic human rights" (hardly news to Washington, needless to say). A few weeks later, Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying a mass."

"You say that you are Christian. If you are really Christian, please stop sending military aid to the military here [El Salvador], because they use it only to kill my people."