Archbishop Romero's Important Role In The Salvadorian Community

Archbishop Romero played an important role in the Salvadorian community. He was the voice, speaking out on behalf of the poor and the oppressed. Similar to Jesus, Romero showed his closeness to the poor, his love of the vulnerable, his courage and resolution, the pharisaic plotting against him, his doubts and fears, the death threats and the public execution. There was disbelief and despair all across El Salvador but especially in the poor communities amongst the common people and city dwellers that Archbishop Romero loved so dearly. During his three dramatic years as archbishop, Romero became more visible to the wider world through his legendary preaching to a nation engulfed in tension and violence. In a country that was so corrupt, Romero fearlessly spoke the truth. He took on the wealthy landowners for their exploitation of seasonal workers and the military for their torture, killings and terrorization of the rural population. This brought down persecution on the Church and many of the priests and catechists were killed prior to Romero’s own assassination.
Archbishop Romero did not always identify with the poor like he did later in his ministry. In a way he experienced metanoia. Romero started to identify more with the common people when he began to see how corrupt the Salvadorian government …show more content…
This view grabbed Romero and pulled him in; it seized him. He took on a kenotic life because of the dangerous memories that altered him. The step into the world of the poor, with the poor, for the poor was to identify as poor. It was, in a word, solidarity. Despite his kenotic life, Romero did not lose hope in the promises and work of God. You could even say that the kenotic life brought its own hope because it revolutionized the understanding of salvation: God was on the side of the poor. The kenotic life is not simple or easy, but is