Free Essay On Liberation Theology: The Conflict Between Monsenor Romero And The Militars

Oscar Romero was the Archbishop of El Savador (Latin America) and is popular as one of the globally recognized martyrs. Romero reigned at the peak of the cold war. The developing world became a key stage where the two ideological superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union played out their conflicts. In Latin America, people in the grassroots (through liberation movements) challenged the old totalitarian and corrupt regimes, calling for land reforms. Yielding to this pressure, the Catholic Church, which had traditionally sided with the wealthy ruling class, turned to amplify the voice of the poor, the lowliest and downtrodden of society. This is what led to the so-called ‘liberation theology’, an aggressive form of theology that called for political and economic change. Oscar Romero is the biggest symbol of liberation theology in Latin America, and believed in using violence if peace failed, although only as a solution and not part of the problem (Dennis 5-6). This is what made him an enemy of the militars, which in the end killed him.
When Romero came to power in 1977, there already was growing tension between the rich and the poor. Taking the side of the poor, Romero spoke strongly against poverty and social injustice, as well as torture and assassinations of those who stood for ‘right’ (Cavada 3). He said:
“A truly democratic state, one that defends the fundamental rights of all its citizens, based on just economic order.””(Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion 112)
Romero lived with the poor and witnessed their struggles and their pains, all the while the rich getting richer, land owners suffocating their laborers with lower wages. While he believed in looking for an answer through peace, he also believed that violence could be used if the need arose.
Romero’s sermons carried a strong message and is said to have fomented the bloody peasant uprising that turned into a civil war that took over a decade to end. He is quoted supporting violence.
He argued that although Christians should avoid violence whenever possible, ultimately they are “peaceful, but not passive” and not incapable of fighting when necessary.” (Petersen 112).

Violence may legitimately be used “Only after every other possible peaceful means has been tried.”( Petersen 112)

“Violence can only be justified only when it does not “bring in relation an even greater evil that is being resisted. Violence can best be avoided””( Petersen 112)
In these words, it becomes clear that Romero believed that there were circumstances that allowed violence, that there came a time when every human being had to rise up in arms and fight for their lives. Therefore, he argued that the poor had the right to fight for a fair share of the society. This he saw as ‘legitimate violence’.
However, he also emphasized that one of the things that constituted ‘legitimate violence’ was using it to find a solution not cause a bigger problem.
"Before an order to kill that a man may give, the law of God must prevail that says: Thou shalt not kill! No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God." (First of two quotes from Romero's last Sunday sermon.)
In this regard, until he died, Romero insisted on peace, calling the poor to avoid violence because, perhaps, there was still room to use peace. This is what he called the ‘violence of love’, the kind that does not allow killing others.
It was not just the words he spoke that may have had a big impact on the poor. It was also the passion that came out in his speeches and sermons that easily got into the people’s minds. One of his most fervent words he spoke March 23, 1980:
“In the name of God, then, and in the name of this suffering People, whose laments rise to Heaven, each day more tumultuously, I beg you, I beseech you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression!".
These words rang most poignantly most especially because he was assassinated the very next day, and may have been the key inspiration for the violence that ensued that very day, the 24th of March, 1980.
“When we struggle for human rights, for freedom, for dignity, when we feel that it is a ministry of the church to concern itself for those who are hungry, for those who have no schools, for those who are deprived, we are not departing from God’s promise. He comes to free us from sin, and the church knows that sin’s consequences are all such injustices and abuses. The church knows it is saving the world when it undertakes to speak also of such things.”

Oscar Romero in The Violence of Love

“The church must suffer for speaking the truth, for pointing out sin, for uprooting sin. No one wants to have a sore spot touched, and therefore a society with so many sores twitches when someone has the courage to touch it and say: “You have to treat that. You have to get rid of that. Believe in Christ. Be converted.” Oscar Romero in The Violence of Love
“We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us. The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence of love, of brotherhood, the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for work.” (Romero ..)

"If they kill me, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people."

In an Interview a Few Weeks before his assassination
“PEACE is generosity. It is right and it is duty.”

A young Father Oscar Romero

A youthful Oscar Romero still as Father in El Savador
Archbishop Romero and a crowd of people in San Antonio Los Ranchos as he arrives for Mass (1979)
Archbishop Romero inside church at San Antonio Los Ranchos (1979)
Archbishop Romero receiving a sack of beans from parishioners after Mass in San Antonio Los Ranchos (1979)

Archbishop Romero sharing with a group of young people in El Savador

The body of Oscar Romero moments after he is shot
A coffin carrying the remains of Romero
Romero as a Cultural Figure
A mural of Romero

Works Cited

Cavada, Miguel. Romero. San Salvador: Asociación Equipo Maíz, 2000. Print
Dennis, Marie. Oscar Romero. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000. Print.
Peterson, Anna L. Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion: Progressive Catholicism in El Salvador’s Civil War. New York: State University of New York Press, 1996. Print.
Romero, Oscar A. The Violence of Love. New York: Orbis Books, 2004. Print.