Romero, Jesuit Martyrs In El Salvador, And Pope Francis In The Mission Of Promoting Peace And Reconciliation

Abstract

On March 24, 1980, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador in El Salvador, was killed while celebrating Mass. On Nov 16, 1989, a unit of soldiers machine-gunned six Jesuits at the Central American University in San Salvador. Romero and the six Jesuits were murdered because they spoke out against injustice towards the poor and promoted non-violent national peace negotiations. Carrying Christ’s mission, they even offered their own lives.
In recent decades, the Chinese government has been stricter with churches in China. O’Connell (2018) reported that, in a historic breakthrough, on September 22, 2018 in Beijing, the Holy See signed a “provisional agreement” with China on the appointment of bishops, to foster peace and reconciliation for the Chinese Catholic church. As a human person, a moral leader and a Christian, one must ask oneself: What is God’s mission and my role in it? Inspired by the martyrs and Pope Francis, how can one carry out the mission of promoting peace and reconciliation?