«Hand in hand with St. Oscar»

Pope Francis beneath an image of St. Oscar Romero during WYD in Panama.

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#Beatification	#Canonization

In his address to the Episcopal Secretariat of Central America (SEDAC, for its Spanish name) on January 24, 2019, Pope Francis proposed St. Oscar Romero as a model for the bishops of the region. [Text of the speech here; and good summaries in English here, and in Spanish here.] The Foreign Minister of El Salvador Carlos Castaneda declared that Francis had presented Romero “as one of the great figures in the world, a spiritual guide par excellence”, in this address.  [See also: Romero for Doctor of the Church; the other doctors.]

Papal admiration

Introducing Romero, Francis demonstrated that he has great admiration for the saint. Francis told SEDAC that he wanted to proceed not only “with the figure of Romero”, but “along with Saint Oscar” (in Sp., ‘hand in hand with St. Oscar’), “whom I recently had the privilege of canonizing.” Later, addressing the young people present at the gathering, Francis again showed his enthusiasm for Romero.

“A saint from these lands,” the Pope began to say to the boisterous youth; but first he asked for attention: “listen to this.” Then he went on: “a saint from these lands liked to say that: «Christianity is not a collection of truths to be believed, of rules to be followed, or of prohibitions».”[i] The words were Romero's. Francis completed the quote: «Seen that way Christianity puts us off.[ii] Christianity is a person who loved me immensely, who demands and asks for my love. Christianity is Christ.»[iii] (Homily, November 6, 1977.) In fact, Francis liked the phrase so well that he asked the young people to repeat it three times: “Christianity is Christ!”.


Update: back in Rome after the trip, Pope Francis told pilgrims at his General Audience on January 30, 2019 that he and the Central American bishops had “let ourselves be taught by the testimony of the holy bishop Oscar Romero” during their encounter.

The speech before SEDAC cited various Romero homilies, as well as examples from his life. The text should also be read alongside other pronouncements by Francis on Romero, especially his letter to the Salvadoran bishops for Romero’s beatification, and Francis’ words to Salvadoran pilgrims in Rome in October 2015, and October 2018.

A Latin American father

To the pilgrims last October, Francis said that Romero is “a distinguished pastor of the American continent”, and indeed before SEDAC he presented him as a father of the church in the continent. “To appeal to the figure of Romero is to appeal to the holiness and prophetic character present in the DNA of your particular Churches,” Francis told the Central American bishops.

Already at the time of his beatification, Francis wrote to the Salvadoran bishops that it was a “day of celebration for the Salvadoran nation, and also for the beautiful Latin American countries.” This word was concretized in Panama, where Francis placed a relic of Romero on the altar of the oldest cathedral on the continent, along with others of the most prominent Latin American saints, St. Martin of Porres and St. Rose of Lima.

A model bishop

Most of all, Francis presented Romero as a model for bishops. He did so in October, in the middle of the synod of bishops, when Francis introduced Romero to “all my brothers in the Episcopate”, as “an example and a stimulus in the ministry entrusted to you.”

In Panama this has been put in a sharper focus. “His life and his teachings,” said Francis, speaking of Romero, “remain a source of inspiration for our Churches and, in a special way, for us as bishops.” It is noteworthy that Francis identifies two different aspects: “his life and his teachings”. His life has already been enshrined as worthy of admiration, because he lived as a saint and died as a martyr. But Francis is pointing out his teaching as another important aspect of his legacy.

In particular, Francis highlights Romero as exemplary for his pastoral approach: “a yardstick, however daunting, to help us measure our own hearts as bishops,” he told SEDAC.

On this point there seems to be ecumenical agreement: at the time of the canonization, the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote the Pontiff that Romero was “a true example to all Christians, and particularly to our fellow bishops.”

Thinking With The Church

The first “teaching” of Romero that Francis meditates with SEDAC is Romero’s episcopal motto (“Thinking With The Church”), which, according to Francis, “clearly expresses the principle that guided his life as a pastor.”

Francis declares it “the compass for his life and fidelity.” In fact, Romero himself wrote that his episcopal motto “concretely means unconditional attachment to the Hierarchy” (Chaparrastique, 1965). In the same way, Francis defends Romero from any accusation of straying: “He was neither an ideologue nor ideological; his actions were born of a thorough familiarity with the Council documents.”

But Romero’s “Thinking with the Church” does not stop at the study and theoretical acceptance of the texts adopted by the hierarchy at Vatican II. “Against this ecclesial horizon,” says Francis, “thinking with the Church meant, for Romero, contemplating her as the People of God.”

Romero’s genius is that he transforms his hierarchical and orthodox “thinking” into a broad and popular insight. It becomes an opening to the suffering of his people, listening to their anxieties and aspirations, and to the identification and closeness with his priests (for example, Francis points out, Fr. Rutilio Grande).

Church of the Kenosis

Francis's great innovation at SEDAC was to present Romero as the great teacher on ‘the Church of the kenosis of Christ’ (that is, his voluntary dispossession of his divinity to assume a total identification with humanity through the incarnation). To reflect that kenosis, said Romero, and Francis repeats it now, means for the Church to divest itself of all traits of worldly power and privileges.

Romero explains it explicitly in a homily on October 1, 1978. Romero speaks of kenosis to explain the abandonment by the post-conciliar popes of the symbols of power: the coronation, the tiara, the sedia gestatoria; and by Romero in living in a hospital for cancer patients and identifying with the poor. This is interesting because Francis has taken up this option decisively by not using the papal apartments, or the more sumptuous vestments, and by wanting to become closer to “the existential peripheries” than the centers of power.

Apart from evidencing a deep knowledge, on the part of the Pope, of the pronouncements of the martyred bishop, the proposal also has a solid foundation in terms of Romero’s doctrinal development. A note by the Romero's biographer, Fr. James R. Brockman, establishes how Romero evolved from being a rigorous ascetic who deprived himself of sensual excesses to becoming someone who sought to empty himself in order to maturely accept the will of God.[iv]

In this historic address to SEDAC, Francis has placed St. Oscar Romero as a true standard for the Latin American Church, whose teachings should be incorporated into the continental magisterium.

(On the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas)

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[i] Compare: Benedict XVI, pronouncement of August 5, 2006: “Christianity, Catholicism, is not a collection of prohibitions: it is a positive option.”

[ii] See also: Benedict XVI, «DEUS CARITAS EST,» number 3: “doesn't the Church, with all her commandments and prohibitions, turn to bitterness the most precious thing in life?”

[iii] Benedict XVI, Op. Cit., Number 1: “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”

[iv] James R. Brockman, S.J., “The Spiritual Journey of Oscar Romero”, Spirituality Today, Winter 1990, Vol. 42 No. 4 303-322, available at: https://opcentral.org/resources/2015/01/21/james-r-brockman-s-j-the-spiritual-journey-of-oscar-romero/#4.