Oscar Romero: Rome’s Political “Martyr in a New Light”

Oscar Romero, PDF format

Oscar Romero

Francis I, the Roman pope, recently beatified South American Roman Catholic archbishop, Oscar Romero, who was murdered in 1980.  This was not just another Popish beatification.  This was a beatification of immense significance to the vast Roman Catholic population of Latin America, and to the entire Roman Catholic world.  For in beatifying Romero, the Papacy gave a huge boost to the violent doctrine of “liberation theology”, which is nothing less than Roman Catholic Marxism, and sent a message to the world that could not be clearer: the Roman Catholic “Church”, the largest and most powerful religion on the face of the earth, has committed itself, from its pope all the way down through the ranks, to a Marxist world, and will readily endorse violence to push this Red ideology.  Liberation theology is the diabolical teaching that Romanism and Marxism are one and the same; that Christ and Marx were working for the same things; that the creation of a Communist world will be the creation of Christ’s kingdom on earth; that violence against the State is justified if it ushers in a more just social order (a Marxist government); etc.  Francis I is a South American Jesuit and a believer in liberation theology, as his statements and actions have made abundantly clear through the years.  For further evidence, see my articles, A Jesuit Becomes the Pope of Rome and The Jesuit Roman Pope Francis I.[1]

Liberation theology needed a “saint”: someone who could be upheld as a “Christian” example to follow.  Rome has always made much use of men as rallying points for the masses, who give a human face to the “cause” and inspire the masses to follow blindly wherever Rome says they must go.  And to find just such a man to be the face of liberation theology was very easy: Oscar Romero, the murdered archbishop of San Salvador.

In the years before he was killed, Romero had been an outspoken champion of liberation theology, Romanism’s doctrine of religious Marxism, which had taken Latin America by storm and was shaping a “Church” across that vast continent which proclaimed Marxism disguised as “Christianity”, claiming to “identify with the poor”; a radicalised “Church” which saw priests take up arms and join the terrorist organisations fighting against various Latin American governments.  Liberation theology was instigated by Jesuit priests, and they more than any others were promoting it across the length and breadth of Latin America in the 1970s.  When in March 1977 Jesuit priest Rutillo Grande was murdered by the Salvadoran authorities, Romero came out strongly on the side of the liberation theologians.[2]  The Jesuits were his close advisors.[3]  So although he was not officially a member of the Jesuit order himself, Romero was heavily influenced and inspired by them.

Like all other preachers of this evil doctrine, he would often pepper his sermons with scriptural references, but always distorted so as to make it appear that the Bible supported Catholic-Communism.  For example, he once referred in a “pastoral letter” to the time when Jesus was transfigured before His disciples, and said, “The five people with Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, and John, were all men of violent disposition.”[4]  To the masses of biblically-illiterate poor in South America, who knew nothing of what the Bible really said but who trusted their priests for their eternal salvation, the message was clear: go, and do likewise.

Six young priests were killed in action fighting as Marxist guerillas in 1978 and 1979, and another seven were killed in 1980.  And just two months before Romero’s own murder, from January 22 to 31, 1980, 167 Roman Catholic activists and demonstrators were killed and over 200 injured, many of them after listening to their archbishop, Romero.  On January 27 he called for rebellion against the authorities, saying, “Their duty was that of serving the people and not the privileged few.”[5]

Oscar Romero was murdered by four gunmen on March 24, 1980, while saying a funeral mass in San Salvador.  As he lifted the chalice he said, “In this chalice the wine becomes blood which was the sacrifice for the salvation of this people.  May this sacrifice give us the courage to offer our own bodies for justice and peace.”  At that moment he was shot in the heart, and he fell on his back at the altar.

Oscar Romero  After his murder he was hailed within days, throughout Latin America and elsewhere, as “Saint Romero of the Americas”.[6]  This was unofficial, of course, but he became perhaps the most powerful rallying point for advocates of liberation theology everywhere, the symbol of the Latin American Marxist/liberation theology revolution; a martyr for Rome.  He inspired the Marxist radicalism of a great many other Latin American priests and bishops, as well as those in Africa and Asia.

After his murder, the violence escalated.  Between 1978 and 1979, 896 people were killed; but in 1980 this rose to several thousand; and then to well over 11000 in 1981, and to over 22000 in the first part of 1982.  Romero’s murder had accelerated the religious Marxist revolution.

In 1982, a gathering of 250 Brazilian bishops endorsed Romero’s questioning (in true Marxist style) of “the right to property”.  This was a massive swing to the Communist side by Latin America’s powerful Roman Catholic hierarchy, and it was music to the ears of the millions of poverty-stricken squatters living in derelict shanty towns on the outskirts of Brazil’s cities.  As far as they were concerned, such words from their bishops were nothing less than an incitement to rise up against the established order in a violent revolution.[7]

Continuing with their Communist rant, these bishops at the gathering blamed the social upheavals in their continent, not on those rebellious Marxists actually causing it, but on the economic fabric “which forces many to work for a miserable wage, while maintaining the privileges of the few.”  Lenin could hardly have said it better.

Truly Rome lost nothing, and gained much, from the murder of Oscar Romero.  He had been valuable to the Jesuits and other liberation theologians while alive; he was far more valuable to them dead.  For they were able to turn him into a martyr for the cause, a man who supposedly laid down his life to “liberate” the poor and downtrodden of the vast Roman Catholic continent of South America.

Yet Romero, despite all the “good” he did, both alive and dead, for Rome, and despite being hailed almost immediately, unofficially, as “Saint Romero”, was not in fact placed on the path to official “sainthood” by the pope at the time, John Paul II, even though millions wanted him to be.  Why not?

The reason was because John Paul II, although an advocate of “Catholic-Communism” himself, had to tread very carefully at the time so as not to offend the United States of America.  For there was a secret alliance between the Vatican and Washington, forged for the purpose of thwarting Moscow’s expansionist ambitions worldwide.  Washington was supporting, indeed propping up, various non-Communist governments in South America at the time, some of them very dictatorial and cruel.  It was doing this so as to prevent Moscow making further headway in that volatile continent, the countries of which always seemed to be either on the brink of revolution or actually caught up in one.  The following is taken from my article, The Jesuit Roman Pope Francis I: “[John Paul II] was anti-Soviet Marxism, but pro-Roman Catholic Marxism; in other words, he supported a brand of Marxism controlled from the Vatican, not Moscow.  He was also a pro-Washington pope.  In Latin America the Jesuits were up to their dog-collared necks in promoting the radical Catholic-Communist teaching known as liberation theology.  John Paul II was not against liberation theology, but his American backers – namely, the Reagan Administration – wanted him to put the brakes on the Jesuits’ violent and bloodthirsty liberation theology activities in Latin America, because their huge support for Marxist revolutions on that continent was a threat to Washington’s own interests and plans.”[8]

But this presented John Paul II with a huge dilemma: his priests in Latin America were supporting various revolutions, and violently promoting their own brand of Catholic-Communism, at the very time when the Vatican, the Great Whore of Bible prophecy, was committing fornication with the United States (Rev. 17:2).  America’s multiplied millions of Roman Catholics were (and still are) a huge source of revenue for Rome, and more than anything Rome wanted to fully conquer the United States.  So, not wishing to anger Washington, John Paul II (among other things, such as going head to head with the powerful Jesuit Order itself which almost resulted in his own demise) distanced himself from Oscar Romero and refused to beatify him – beatification being the first step towards Romish “sainthood”.  He even refused to attend Romero’s funeral.  This upset and angered many Roman Catholics.  In the end, however, even John Paul II realised that it would be best to try to appease the radical Jesuits and other liberation theology priests of Latin America, so he flew to the “church” where Romero had been murdered and celebrated a mass at the altar there.  This symbolic gesture, however, was not well received by the Jesuits, for they knew it was a hollow one.

Well, that was back then.  1980 was a different time to 2015, much water has flowed under the Tiber’s bridges since then, and the papacy of John Paul II is history.  The Jesuits, whose power John Paul II had once tried to curtail, had fought back, and are now in absolute control of the Vatican, for one of their own – Francis I – sits as pope of Rome.  And under Francis – the first pope from Latin America itself, and even more importantly, the first Jesuit pope – liberation theology is at the very forefront of Vatican geopolitics.  And Oscar Romero has been brought in from the cold.  Nay more, he has been completely exonerated, by being beatified as the first step towards being canonised as a “saint” of the Roman Catholic “Church”.

The “sainthood” cause for Romero was actually opened at the Vatican in the early 1990s, by John Paul II when he felt able to do so without damaging Vatican/Washington relations; and he formally accepted the cause for Romero’s canonisation in 1997, when Romero was given the title “Servant of God”.  But its finalisation was delayed all these years while Romero’s writings were studied by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the modern name for the old Inquisition.  The Inquisitors debated whether he had been killed for his faith – thereby making him a “martyr” – or for political reasons.  The latter was the truth!

This was admitted by Michael Lee, associate professor of theology at Fordham University (a Jesuit university), when he tried to paint a different picture of martyrs so as to get people used to Rome’s new definition.  He said that the “martyrdom” of Romero was different from how most people traditionally see martyrs.  “Many of us have notions of ancient Christian martyrs before a Roman emperor,” he said, “but here is Romero, and so many others, who have given their lives for the struggle for justice and human rights, which was inspired by the Gospels’ teachings.  These truly are martyrs and we need to understand martyrdom in a new light because of their example.”[9]  He could try to slice it any which way, but in no sense whatsoever was Oscar Romero a martyr.  He was killed for his radical political activism, for stirring up rebellion against the authorities, for deliberately provoking confrontations with the organs of the State.  He was a political troublemaker, no less so than any other South American or African Marxist revolutionary of those times or afterwards, even if they wore clerical collars; men who blasphemously attempted to justify their wickedness by distorting the Bible itself.  This is liberation theology.  This is religious Communism.  These “martyrs in a new light” were Rome’s pawns; that is all.

And Communism is the dominant political ideology of the Papacy of Francis I.  Even when Francis was still archbishop of Buenos Aires, he reportedly said that he already considered Romero to be a saint.  It was therefore clear that, as pope, he would advance Romero’s “sainthood” cause.  A life like Romero’s was exactly the kind of life to be praised by a South American Jesuit like Francis.

He told journalists: “For me, Romero is a man of God.  He was a man of God but there has to be the process [towards canonisation], and the Lord will have to give his sign (of approval).  But if He wishes, He will do so!  The postulators must move now because there are no impediments.”[10]

Oscar Romero

  In 2014 it became clear to Romero researchers that a Vatican announcement regarding his beatification was imminent.  The newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference announced that a panel of theologians advising the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes unanimously voted to recognise the archbishop as a martyr, declaring that he had been murdered “in hatred for the [Roman Catholic] faith”.[11]  Clearly, a major shift had occurred within the Vatican hierarchy under Francis, the South American/Jesuit/liberation-theology-supporting pope.

Oscar Romero  Supporters of Romero among fanatical Jesuits, other militant priests and Papists in South America were jubilant.  One of them, Julian Filochowski, chairman of the Archbishop Romero Trust in London, said, “It’s so long overdue.  I think it will give great encouragement to the Church [of Rome] and to those who are bread-breaking-justice-seeking Christians [Papists] around the world.”[12]  In other words, to the radical Marxist activists swarming through the ranks of the Roman Catholic institution today after decades of Socialist/Marxist propaganda.

Thomas Kelly, professor of systematic theology at Creighton University, said Romero’s beatification and eventual canonisation “would definitely give people who take the social justice teaching of Vatican II very seriously a model and exemplar who is now a saint in a way that we do not have and have not had before.”[13]  Whenever one reads the words “social justice” from a Roman Catholic, it means only one thing: radical Socialist policies.  Vatican II, in the early 1960s, promoted this Socialism throughout the entire Roman Catholic institution, and it has been gaining momentum ever since, for Rome realised that Socialism and Marxism were taking over the world and it wanted to be on the winning side.

And then Kelly said something that really sums it all up: the canonisation of Oscar Romero “would definitely, I think, propel the agenda of Pope Francis in many ways.”  And that, dear reader, is what this is all about.  Francis’ agenda is nothing less than the radical allignment of the Papal institution, the most powerful religio-political force on earth, with the international Socialist and Marxist cause.  And the Romero affair is just another important step in that direction.  As Kelly went on to say, there are important similarities between Francis I and Oscar Romero: these “include a deep concern for the poor, efforts to minimise the power of the very wealthy and use of the pulpit to advocate for the poor and victims of societal abuses”.  How nice and pleasant all this sounds, and yet how far from the true Gospel!  It is Communism, dressed up in nice-sounding phrases about the “poor”.

The next step was for the cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes to vote on whether to advise Francis to issue a decree of beatification.  As expected, they voted unanimously to recommend that Francis recognise Romero as a martyr; and it was announced in February 2014 that Francis had indeed done so.  Things were moving very rapidly.  And no wonder: around the world the Papal institution has to constantly strive against a secularised, often hostile, anti-religious culture, media, etc., and this is not the time for it to be a stickler for archaic details of ritual and procedure.  It needs modern “saints” and it needs them now – and if it has to speed things up a little more than in the past, well then, so be it.  The unwritten Jesuit motto has always been, “The end justifies the means.”  And Francis, let it never be forgotten, is a Jesuit.

Francis recognised that the archbishop had been slain “in hatred of the [Roman Catholic] faith” and not for purely political reasons (a blatant lie).  Their “proof” of this?  “He was killed at the altar,” said Vincenzo Paglia, an archbishop and chief postulator of Romero’s “sainthood” cause.  “Through him, they wanted to strike the Church that flowed from the Second Vatican Council.”  The shooting “was not caused by motives that were simply political, but by hatred for a faith that, imbued with charity, would not be silent in the face of the injustices that relentlessly and cruelly slaughtered the poor and their defenders.”[14]    Oh, it is entirely possible his killers hated the radicalised, Communistic “Church” that had flowed from Vatican II’s teachings, for millions of Roman Catholics at that time certainly did hate it; but they were striking at a political rebel and fermenter of violence against the State.  This does not in any sense condone their cowardly and gruesome murder, but those who worked so hard to get his “martyrdom” recognised had to give a far more “spiritual” context to his death than it had in reality.

As for the Romish faith being “imbued with charity” and being on the side of “the poor”, this is all nonsense.  It is a most uncharitable, hate-filled religion and always has been, mercilessly cruel, having massacred multiplied millions; and it only now “supports the poor” because it can advance itself in the world of today.  If things changed tomorrow, it would turn against “the poor” in an instant, just as it was against them through so many centuries.

Paglia said in February 2015 that Romero would be beatified in San Salvador “certainly within the year and not later, but possibly within a few months”.  He said that the two decades it took to obtain the decree were the result of “misunderstandings and preconceptions”, because during the time Romero had been archbishop of San Salvador (1977 to 1980), “kilos of letters against him arrived in Rome.  The accusations were simple: he’s political; he’s a follower of liberation theology.”[15]  Correct on both charges! And how did this current archbishop/liberation theologian answer the accusation that Romero supported liberation theology?  Without batting an eyelid, so confident was he that times had changed so much that being a supporter of liberation theology is now seen by millions as perfectly acceptable, indeed right and just.  He replied: “Yes, certainly [Romero supported liberation theology].  But there are two theologies of liberation: one sees liberation only as material liberation; that other is that of Paul VI.  I’m with Paul VI” (meaning he was with Paul VI in seeking both material and spiritual liberation of the people including from injustice and oppression).  A nice distinction, certainly; but considering that Pope Paul VI was a Marxist, and supportive of the Soviet Union, his interest in seeking “spiritual liberation” in addition to “material liberation” was a farce.  The Roman Papacy is always about earthly power, creating a kingdom of this world.  Not that Rome can offer true spiritual freedom from sin anyway, for it is a false religion.

Paglio went on to say that the slowness of Romero’s “sainthood” cause “strengthened his enemies”, among them the late Colombian cardinal, Alfonso López Trujillo, who believed Romero “tended towards Marxism” (correct) and thought his canonisation would be seen as canonising the materialistic, political form of liberation theology (correct again, and actually there is no other form of liberation theology anyway).  Yes, sometimes there have been astute men within the ranks of the Roman Catholic hierarchy.  Not Christian men of course, but men who have seen through the lies of “Catholic Communism”.  And because they oppose the Communist ideology now dominant within the hierarchy, they are branded as “enemies” of progress, “enemies” of truth, or whatever.  Yes, Rome readily and viciously turns on its own, when they are out of step with Rome’s policies at any given time.  One just has to remember all the popes themselves who have been murdered within the Vatican’s walls.

Oscar Romero

  Francis officially beatified Oscar Romero on 23 May 2015.  As part of his message on the occasion, he could not praise Romero highly enough.  He spoke of the beatification as “a cause for great joy for the Salvadoran people and for those who rejoice by the example of the best children of the Church.  Archbishop Romero, who built peace with the strength of love, gave witness to the faith with his life, given to the extreme.”[16]  He used the usual passages from the Bible which liberation theology has always distorted to try to make it support this devilish doctrine: comparing Romero with Moses leading the people out of Egypt, and speaking of the Salvadoran people being brought into a land of milk and honey from a time of oppression.  And he said people should pray to him, and find in him the strength to “build the Kingdom of God”, which – in true liberation theology style – he equated with “a more equal and dignified social order”.  Always, liberation theology is the “gospel” of Marx; always, it is about building a Marxist social order and equating this with Christ’s Kingdom.  Liberation theology is the heresy of an earthly “Kingdom” ruled by Communists.

How blessed to turn from all this diabolical nonsense to the Word of God, the Bible, which tells us that each and every Christian is a saint of the Lord (e.g. Phil. 4:21; Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2).  Furthermore, when a saint dies he or she goes immediately to heaven, and no prayers are to be addressed to them for they can neither hear nor answer them.  Prayer is to be addressed to God only.  How tragic that Rome has now presented its deluded followers with yet another so-called “saint” to be prayed to, admired, followed: a man who was anything but a true saint of the Lord, who preached and practiced rebellion against the authorities contrary to God’s Word (see Rev. 13:1-7), and who, thanks to his violent death, has become a posthumous pawn in the Papacy’s hands to extend its power over the earth.

June 2015

Shaun Willcock is a minister of the Gospel.  He runs Bible Based Ministries.  For other articles (which may be downloaded and printed), as well as details about his books, audio messages, pamphlets, etc., please visit the Bible Based Ministries website; or write to the address below.  If you would like to be on Bible Based Ministries’ email list, to receive all future articles, please send your details.

ENDNOTES:


[1]. A Jesuit Becomes the Pope of Rome, and The Jesuit Roman Pope Francis I, both by Shaun Willcock.  Available from Bible Based Ministries: www.biblebasedministries.co.uk.

 

 

[2]. The Southern Cross, May 20 to 26, 2015.  Article: “The Martyr’s Progress.”

 

 

[3]. The Vatican Moscow Washington Alliance, by Avro Manhattan, pg. 49.  Chick Publications, Chino, California, 1986.

 

 

[4]. The Vatican Moscow Washington Alliance, pg. 320.

 

 

[5]. The Vatican Moscow Washington Alliance, pg. 318.

 

 

[6]. The Southern Cross, May 20 to 26, 2015.

 

 

[7]. The Vatican Moscow Washington Alliance, pgs. 316-318.

 

 

[8]. The Jesuit Roman Pope Francis I, by Shaun Willcock.  Bible Based Ministries, 2014.  Available from Bible Based Ministries: www.biblebasedministries.co.uk.

 

 

[9]. The Southern Cross, January 21 to 27, 2015.  Article: “Vatican Recognises Oscar Romero as Martyr for the Faith.”

 

 

[10]. Zenit.org, February 3, 2015.  Article: “Pope Recognizes Martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero.”

 

 

[11]. The Southern Cross, January 21 to 27, 2015.

 

 

[12]. The Southern Cross, January 21 to 27, 2015.

 

 

[13]. The Southern Cross, January 21 to 27, 2015.

 

 

[14]. The Southern Cross, February 11 to 17, 2015.  Article: “Romero: Why It Took So Long.”

 

 

[15]. The Southern Cross, February 11 to 17, 2015.

 

 

[16]. Zenit.org, May 25, 2015.  Article: “Pope’s Message on Beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero.”

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