The martyred Bishop of El Salvador,
Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero will be canonized on October 14 in Rome.
On April 5, 1942, Archbishop Romero
celebrated his First Mass in the crypt of our Basilica in Rome, now transformed
into a place with the display of Poliscenic Nativity and Crucifixion
miniatures. We read in the Bulletin of the Claretian Missionaries of the time:
“On Easter Day, 1942,
in the crypt celebrates his first solemn Mass Oscar Romero, of the PÃo Latino
American School, native of the Republic of El Salvador, very close to our
Fathers. The Very Reverend Father Andrea Resa was the presbyter assistant. The
Mass celebrated by the priest was a true apotheosis. “
Oscar Arnulfo Romero was born in a
humble family in El Salvador on August 15, 1917. From a young age he expressed
the desire to be a priest, and entered the diocesan minor seminary of San
Miguel which was run by the Claretian Missionaries, then passed to the Jesuits.
He was chosen to complete his studies in Rome, and it was there where in 1942
he was ordained a priest at the age of 25 years. He continued his theological
studies in Rome until he returned to El Salvador because of the Second World
War.
He was ordained bishop on June 21, 1970,
and served as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. On March 24, 1980, he was
murdered around 6:25 pm while celebrating the Eucharist in the Chapel of the
Hospital of Divine Providence.
REMEMBRANCE IN ROME
Monsignor Romero kept his whole life in
close contact with the Claretian Missionaries and with the Basilica of the
Heart of Mary in Rome.
In his Diary he wrote on May 3, 1979 in
Rome, ten months before his martyrdom:
“Finally, I dined at
the General House of the Claretian Fathers, having shared the main table with
Father General, who tomorrow will leave for Germany for the celebration of his
predecessor, who is now more than eighty years old. With them, I remembered the
days of my minor seminary and also my first Mass, which I celebrated precisely
in the temple annexed to this center of Claretian authority, the Temple of the
Heart of Mary. And when I asked for an autograph in their guestbook, I wrote:
“Today I went back to my origins: I did my minor seminary in San Miguel (El
Salvador) with the dear Claretian Fathers and celebrated my first Mass here on
April 5, 1942 . Thanks and blessings. 3-V-79. Oscar Arnulfo Romero, Archbishop
of San Salvador “.
In the archives of the house this
autograph is kept together with his photograph.
The reason for his visit to Rome was to
attend the beatification of Fr. Francisco Coll. On May 1, 1979, he wrote in his
Diary:
“In the afternoon I went to concelebrate
at the beautiful Basilica of the Heart of Mary where the Claretian Fathers
invited the Dominicans to signify their old friendship with the newly Beatified
Fr. Coll. The Father General of the Dominicans and the Father General of the
Claretians joined the main celebrant who was Cardinal Tarancón. The
concelebration was splendid, about 60 bishops and priests, and the large temple
was completely filled with religious and pilgrims. The Father General of the
Claretians preached about the similarities between these two saints, Saint
Anthony Mary Claret and Father Francisco Coll”.
It was on this occasion that the
Claretians invited him to dinner on May 3. He wrote in his Diary on May 2:
“I was invited by the Claretian Fathers
to go to dinner tomorrow at the Church of the Heart of Mary with the Father
General of the Claretians. I will do so with feelings of gratitude for the
Claretian communities that work in our Archdiocese. “
VIC MEMORIES
And he continues in his Diary on May 10
with his visit to Vic, as he had made the trip to Rome given by the Dominicans
of the Annunciation for the Beatification of Father Coll:
“Afterwards, I had the
good fortune to visit the tomb of Father Antonio Maria Claret, founder of the
Claretians. There is a very rich reliquary and a magnificent temple where the
center is the corpse adorned with a silver mask and Episcopal adornments. And,
above all, they have reconstructed the places that witnessed the creation of
this cordimarian religious Institute in its original form. In the background,
there is a portrait of the figure of Father Claret, about 1.50, small in
height, and the other companions of the foundation; names that I knew from my
first years of seminary, since I began my priestly formation with this
congregation that was then taken by Monsignor Dueñas to San Miguel. I narrated
these memories to the Fathers, who thanked me very much for the visit and I
thanked them very much for their welcome, always cordial “.
The chronicle of our House briefly
notes:
“The Bishop of El
Salvador, accompanied by Priests and Dominican Nuns of Father Coll has visited
our Saint and the Museum “
OTHER MEMORIES
In these very familiar events, Romero
himself indicates the root of that affection for the Congregation. Expelled
from Mexico during the persecution of Calles, several of our people came to El
Salvador hired by the Bishop of San Miguel to take charge of the diocesan
seminary. For ten years, from 1927 to 1937, they fulfilled their delicate mission
with real competence and to the satisfaction of all. The chronicle says that
they left when their contract ended, although in another part it indicates that
they were called by the Superiors to assign them to other Organisms that are in
need and to whom it was impossible to send personnel from Spain after the
enormous bloody suffering of the 271 martyrs of the religious persecution of
1936.
Mons. Romero, many years later, in 1962,
wrote for the newspaper Chaparrastique, San Miguel, how were his first seven
years of seminary with our brothers:
“They were, under the mantle of the
Heart of Mary, the Claretian Fathers and the seminarians, a family whose spirit
was that of the same founder, Saint Anthony Mary Claret. That famous manual of
the seminarian that was taught, El Colegial, was not only read in by pages, but
lived in that environment of dignified, humble and helpful priests, in their
active system of education”.
Statuette of Fr. Claret given by Mons.
Óscar Romero to Fr. Lino Hernando. It’s a pity that the chronicler of the House
of Palencia, in a note written much later than the moment, already 1995, did
not write down dates or other details that would have been very interesting. It
says:
“The visit of Bishop Most Reverend
Romero to Fr. Lino Hernando, whom he valued so much, since he was his formator
in the Major Seminary in Central America, to the point that while Fr. Lino was
in Cuba, Monsignor Romero called him to Central America to render him a tribute
with all his formands. When he came here to visit him, he left as a souvenir a
statuette of Fr. Claret, which he kept with great affection and today is
displayed in front of us in the TV room as a perpetual memory of both Monsignor
Romero, a martyr in defense of the poor, and Fr. Lino who worked much and well
in the Antilles and Central America. Besides, this was his last residence
before he retired and lived his last already sick years in Colmenar Viejo.
Of the statuette referred to (now in the
Claretian Museum of Colmenar Viejo), notes in Palencia:
“Statuette of Fr. Claret given by Mons.
Óscar Romero to Fr. Lino Hernando.”
Moreover, we find in his Diary, already
very close to his martyrdom, on September 19, 1979, a reference to the
Claretian missionaries:
“I went to lunch with the Claretian
seminarians in Santa Tecla, a nice group of nine boys and a priest who attends
them, with whom we shared moments of my many memories with the spirit of the
Claretians, who fed my first minor seminary in San Miguel. It was very
interesting the dialogue on table and after dinner and, they were, I think,
were very satisfied, as well as they gave me a lot of encouragement too.”
Each year the Salvadoran community
present in Rome, with its Ambassador, Consul and authorities, celebrate in the
Basilica of the Heart of Mary the Independence Day on the second Sunday of
September. Every year, the historic figure of Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero is
remembered together with the said celebration.
By - Fr. Efrain Vasquez Mamani, cmf
