Pope honors martyred archbishop Oscar Romero

After years of stagnant discussion over honoring martyred bishop Oscar Romero in the Catholic Church, things suddenly moved very quickly.

The urgency began when Argentina's Jorge Bergoglio became Pope Francis in 2013. Two years later, he beatified Archbishop Romero, who was gunned down in El Salvador in 1980.

On Sunday, Romero was one of six to be canonized as a saint in a ceremony led by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square. 

Tens of thousands of people gathered in St Peter’s Square on Sunday as Pope Francis declared the two men saints, with others who were born in Italy, Germany and Spain in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

Romero: a national hero

Romero has been considered a national hero and a champion of peace and human rights in his native El Salvador for years.

His grave in the Cathedral of San Salvador is a place of pilgrimage for many Latin Americans.

When Romero's canonization was announced, El Salvador's president, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, was clear about the significance of the moment: "Latin America finally has a saint! May his example help bring change to our country."

A role model for Obama

Romero, who stood up for the rights of El Salvador's poorest citizens and against the violence of his country's military dictatorship, is also a respected figure internationally. In 2011, United States President Barack Obama knelt before the grave of the "bishop of the poor." The United Nations also honored him with a name day. And in 2000, El Salvador's parliament named him an "esteemed son" of the country.

Nevertheless, until the election of fellow Latin American Pope Francis in March 2013, Romero had few advocates in the Vatican.

Social revolutionary priests and bishops who refused to accept poverty among believers as the will of god and chose instead to ease the fate of the downtrodden through spirituality had little chance of beatification or canonization. Still, "believers throughout Latin America spoke of 'San Romero de las Americas' — the saint of the Americas — long before the church announced plans to canonize him," as Michael Huhn, Romero expert at the German Catholic Church's Latin American aid agency Adveniat, told DW.

Turnaround

But then, the first Latin American to sit upon the Chair of Saint Peter initiated a political turnaround within the Catholic Church. Since Pope Francis took up his post, Romero has no longer been looked at as a revolutionary or a communist, but rather as a champion of human rights. The 62-year-old archbishop became a martyr on March 24, 1980, when he was killed by a paramilitary sniper while celebrating mass.

Oscar Romero, Helder Camara, Gustavo Gutierrez, Jon Sobrino, Leonardo Boff and Erwin Kräutler — not only were these men adherents to Latin American liberation theology, resisting military dictatorship in the region and calling for social justice, they posed a question that has never lost its potency: Can the Christian faith change society? Prelate Vincenzo Paglia, postulator for the cause of canonization of Blessed Oscar Romero, says it clearly can: "The decision to love the poor in order to change the world is the same decision Jesus made."

Read more: Pope Francis: The Catholic Church's Superman?

Romero is the first in a long list of forgotten Latin America martyrs. And Michael Huhn of Adveniat says it is only logical that Pope Francis is pushing so hard for the church to honor him, since the Argentine has long done so himself. "What impressed Pope Francis was the fact that Romero knelt down to help the poor," he said. "The motto that he lived his life by was that little people matter. That is something that Francis emulated in his work as a Jesuit, as the archbishop of Buenos Aires and as pope."

And the remembrance of martyrs, those who died for their faith, is one of the current pontiff's recurring admonitions, Huhn explained: "As an example of what lived Christianity — radically lived Christianity — can mean."

The priest and the pope

The topic of martyrdom is one that connects Romero with the late Pope Paul VI, who was also canonized together with four others on Sunday. Huhn believes the shared honor is "very good." Paul VI did "tremendous" things for Latin America, he said, pointing out that he was also the first pope to travel there. Latin Americans see Paul VI not as the controversial contraceptive pope of the encyclical "Humanae Vitae" but as the "pope of justice."

"When Romero was being attacked by oligarchs at home as well as other bishops, he went to Paul VI," said Huhn. "The pope opened his door immediately, Romero did not need an audience or an appointment. He brought photos of martyrs with him. They moved Paul VI deeply, and he knew exactly where he had to stand."        

The other religious figures to be canonized on Sunday were Maria Katharina Kasper, the German founder of a religious congregation; Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa, the Spanish founder of another order; and two Italian priests, Father Francesco Spinelli and Father Vincenzo Romano.

Nineteenth century German nun 

Maria Katharina Kasper was born in the southwest of Germany in 1820. 

She founded the religious order of the Dernbacher Sisters, the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, whose mission was to care for the old and the sick. 

Today, the community she founded is active across many countries and has 600 sisters.

"The canonization of Katharina Kasper is a unique event for our diocese and for the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ that we will jointly celebrate," Limbourg Bishop George Baetzing said.

Blessed by Pope Paul VI in 1978, the Vatican recognized as a miracle Kasper's curing of an Indian man.