Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Carmelite Sister Maria Julia Garcia shows some of Archbishop Oscar Romero's relics at a museum in San Salvador.

When Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated on March 24, 1980, the vestments he wore were bathed in blood. After the attack, Carmelite nuns who managed Divine Providence Hospital in El Salvador kept them and other belongings with the greatest possible care. For 35 years, the congregation and the sisters running the hospital have taken care of the relics. Now Archbishop Romero is scheduled to be beatified in San Salvador on May 23 and the government may declare the chapel a National Cultural Heritage site. Sister María Julia García, the Carmelite superior and director of the hospital, worries that this would put the sisters in a very awkward situation because they would have no say in the care of the relics. “We, as the moral owners of these relics, fear that they will be taken away from us and relocated to another place, where they would not be treated with respect,” she said.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

A leading figure in academic Catholic feminism after the Second Vatican Council, Anne E. Carr was also a renowned scholar and an inspiration to generations of theologians.
James T. KeaneJuly 01, 2025
At the time of his appointment as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in 2023, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost described in an interview one change he would like to see in the bishop selection process: greater involvement of lay people.
Colleen DulleJuly 01, 2025
Bishops from the conferences of Africa, Asia, and Latin America produced a joint document calling for climate justice ahead of the U.N. climate conference in November.
“One of the things I find most appealing about the award-winning writer and poet Mary Karr is her forthright, almost brutal, honesty.”
James Martin, S.J.July 01, 2025