Forty years ago, the Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero was assassinated by a right-wing militant. He remains a shining example of the radical potential of Christian values.

There have always been two types of Christianity – two traditions under the same Church.

One says, "give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s", and insists that Christians always respect established authority.

The other remembers that the Bible said:

" Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."

As Jesus worked his miracles to feed his 5,000 poor followers, countless Christians down the centuries have devoted themselves to helping the downtrodden.

William Wilberforce, Martin Niemöller, Martin Luther King, Tony Benn – all devoutly Christian rebels.

Priest Oscar Romero was not always on the radical side of the Catholic Church - but violence changed his mind.

Romero's humble beginnings 

Another of the great symbols of this radical tradition in Christianity is the Salvadoran Archbishop, Óscar Romero.

Born in 1917, Romero was not always on the radical wing of his Catholic Church.

When he first entered the priesthood in 1942, Romero was a relative traditionalist and conservative by Church standards.

He still was thirty years later, when he was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador in February 1977.

But then everything changed.

Martin Luther King was famously a Christian rebel - click to view our tea towel in tribute

A radical turn 

On 12 ^th March 1977, Romero’s friend, the Jesuit priest  Rutilio Grande, was assassinated for his work in support of the Salvadoran working class.

For context, El Salvador in the late-1970s was overrun with death squads affiliated to the country’s US-backed right-wing (which seized control of the government in 1979).

Anything which could be linked to left-wing values – including mere sympathy for the poor – was met with violent intimidation.

Seeing his friend gunned down by this violence, Archbishop Romero experienced a radical transformation.

" When I looked at Rutilio lying there dead I thought, if they have killed him for what he did, then I too have to walk the same path."

Óscar Romero then committed himself to holding San Salvador’s right-wing government to account.

He wrote to President Jimmy Carter, imploring him (without success) to end US support.

In 1980, while in Europe, Romero expressed his concerns directly to Pope John Paul II.

Denouncing right-wing violence against Salvadoran Catholics, he said:

" Not any and every priest has been persecuted. The part of the church which has been attacked and persecuted is the part that put itself on the side of the people and went to the people’s defence."

Thanks to his prominence as an Archbishop, Romero was able to go further in his defiance of the government than most.

But even he was not immune to the violence in El Salvador.

Another devoutly christian freedom fighter - click to view our William Wilberforce design

Saint Romero: freedom fighter 

Forty years ago today, on 24^th March 1980, Óscar Romero was assassinated during Mass by a Right-wing militant.

The reaction, domestic and international, was fierce.

Defying the government which had murdered the Archbishop, 250,000 Salvadorans attended Romero’s funeral in the capital.

In the States, the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union refused to deliver arms to El Salvador and pressure on Jimmy Carter to end US support for the Salvadoran government grew.

Óscar Romero’s murder became a symbol of right-wing barbarity in Cold War Latin America – and its contemptible sponsorship by the US government.

Like all religions, Christian churches have often stood side-by-side with the forces of reaction.

But it needn’t be that way.

Now officially a Saint, the immortal example of Óscar Romero shows how, when true to itself, Christianity can be a vital part of the progressive movement for a better world.

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