May 29 | comments icon 0 COMMENTS     print icon print

11-OSCAR-ROMERO-MURAL

Role models need not be perfect, nor always unifying

This week’s editorial leader

Saint or sinner: We are one, can be both, and are reminded this week that the goal of sainthood does not necessarily mean perfection in everyone’s eyes. When he visited Scotland and England in 2010 Pope Benedict XVI told young Catholics that there were some of the future saints of the 21st century. He inspired them to fulfill that potential.

The Beatification of Oscar Romero on Saturday places on the path to sainthood the El Salvadorian archbishop whose martyrdom Pope Francis, Benedict XVI’s successor, recognised.

Despite only serving as his country’s archbishop for three years before his assassination in 1980 while celebrating Mass, Archbishop Romero had a profound impact on the social, economic and political status quo in El Salvador. The archbishop was the most powerful and vocal of his nation’s Church figures and he soon became known as ‘The People’s Saint.’

The iconic yet controversial religious leader worked tirelessly to help the lower-class and was the most influential opponent of the government’s oppression of the poor.  Thousands of people attended his sermons, many of which were broadcast on the radio. Young educated people in his country talk of him as a hero, but some of their more affluent parents don’t always remember him in this way.

Pope John Paul II, the Vatican and the Church in El Salvador, however, questioned Romero’s alleged ties to Liberation theology, Marxists organisations and political activism.

No Pope, it would seem, has ever made anyone a saint who so polarised opinion. Anyone, it could be said, apart from St John Paul II himself, the Polish Pope who had a strong aversion to any movement that evokes memories of Stalinism. How interesting that Pope Francis, with his Argentinean roots, has furthered both of their causes for sainthood in our broad, universal Church.

Ultimately, Martyr Oscar Romero has likely been Beatified for his love, compassion, bravery and proactive stance against socially unjust situations.

His work is continued today by many in the Church, Catholic organisations and charities. Look at Justice and Peace Scotland, Mary’s Meals and SCIAF (reports in this week’s SCO) for further inspiration, and also examine the work of Aid to the Church in Need against persecution.

Our young people, our soon-to-be new Caritas Award winners, our future saints of the 21st century, need inspiration. They would do well to look to the saints, not popular culture, to find role models.

 

Leave a Reply


Social media

Latest edition

P1-DEC-25-2015

exclusively in the paper

Don’t miss next Friday’s double edition of the SCO for Christmas and New Year, priced, £2. Inside:

  • Christmas messages from the dioceses around Scotland.
  • 2015 Year in Review special eight-page pullout section, inside the double Christmas edition.
  • James Barclay’s 2015 Christmas short story Gramps.
  • Nativity plays and Christmas shows photograph special.

Previous editions

Previous editions of the Scottish Catholic Observer newspaper are only available to subscribed Members. To download previous editions of the paper, please subscribe.

note: registered members only.

Read the SCO