Pope Francis had strong words on Oct. 30 for Catholic priests and bishops who “defamed” the assassinated archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero. Going off script during a meeting with 500 pilgrims from El Salvador, Pope Francis said, “The martyrdom of Archbishop Romero was not fulfilled at the moment of his death—it was a martyrdom of witness, of prior suffering and prior persecution, up to his death. But even afterward, following his death—I was a young priest and a witness to this—he was defamed, slandered, his memory despoiled and his martyrdom continued also by his brethren in the priesthood and in the episcopate.” The pope added: “Perhaps it is best to see it like this: a man who continues to be a martyr. After having given his life, he continues to give it by allowing himself to be assailed by all this misunderstanding and slander.” Pope Francis added: “This gives me strength. Only God knows the stories of those people who have given their lives, who have died, and continue to be stoned with the hardest stone that exists in the world: language.”
Romero ‘Defamed’
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
“Inside the Vatican” host Colleen Dulle shares how her visit to Argentina gave her a deeper understanding into Francis’ emphasis on “being amongst the people” and his belief that “you can’t do theology behind a desk.”
Christians who have lived in Nagorno-Karabakh for 2,000 years are being driven out by Azerbaijan. Will world leaders act?
The problem is not that TikTok users feel disappointed about the potential loss of an entertaining social platform; it is that many young people see a ban on TikTok as the end of, or at least a major disruption to, their social life.
Two new Broadway productions cast these two towering figures in sharp relief.