[ESPAÑOL]
For the first time in history, the coat of arms (or shield)
of a major American prelate will contain an element allusive to St. Oscar
Romero when Bishop Ronald A. Hicks is named Archbishop of New York, as exclusively
reported earlier in the week by Religión Digital, the influential
Spanish language religion portal.
If Bishop Hicks follows protocol, when he assumes the Big
Apple cathedra, he will combine his personal episcopal shield with that of his new
see (as seen in the illustration above). His shield,
unveiled when he became Bishop of Joliet, Illinois, includes a reference to
Oscar Romero. Per the Joliet diocesan website:
In the middle of the blue field
resides a white, wavy bar known as a fess, which features a sprig of rosemary.
The Spanish word for “rosemary” is “romero.” This pays homage to the martyred
archbishop of El Salvador, St. Oscar Romero, and to the people of Central
America with whom Bishop Hicks lived and worked for five years.
Romero had the rosemary sprig in his own episcopal shield. El Salvador’s Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez also
included rosemary sprigs in honor of Romero in his own coat of arms.
However, this will the first time that a leader of the U.S.
church uses a Romero symbol in his coat of arms. The New York Archdiocese is
the second largest in the United States.
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