Obama to visit Oscar Romero's tomb - But have Romero's supporters alienated him from the mainstream Church, by making him a pin-up for the Left?

It has been confirmed by the Foreign Minister for El Salvador, Hugo Martinez, that US President Barack Obama will visit the tomb of assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero next Wednesday, 23 March (see EPA, here). The Salvadorian prelate was murdered on 24 March 1980, after leading protests against his country's government - the brutal Revolutionary Junta. Since then, Mgsr Romero's supporters have been campaigning for his canonisation as a martyr to the faith.

Obama is also expected to attend Mass during his visit to Romero's tomb, which is located in a crypt beneath the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador. In fact, the US President will be at San Salvador's Cathedral in time to commemorate the eve of the anniversary of Romero's murder - he was shot whilst celebrating Mass in the chapel at the Divine Providence Hospital. The current Archbishop of San Salvador, Msgr Jose Luis Escobar, will accompany Barck Obama during his pilgrimage to Romero's bronze mausoleum.

The US Secretary of State for Latin America, Arturo Valenzuela, said that Obama's visit to El Salvador is designed to recognise the "contribution of all Salvadorans" to building "a democratic country with strong institutions." The US President will arrive in the small Central American country on 22 March, leaving late on 23 March. The visit will form part of a wider tour of Latin America by Barack Obama.

Less than a month before he was shot, Mgsr Oscar Romero wrote to President Jimmy Carter, asking him to stop supplying arms to the Salvadoran regime. It was a plea that fell on deaf ears. The current US president, though, now wishes to honour the former Archbishop of San Salvador as "a universal figure, a representative figure of the faith," according to Hugo Martinez.

Of course, Romero is often venerated as the patron saint of progressives and dissidents, or those on the left - which is probably why the pro-abortion and pro-homosexual Obama is a fan of his. Having said that, it is very unfair to categorise Romero as a liberal martyr, as it is an assumption that arises from the fact that most of his supporters tend to be fans of the hermeneutic of discontinuity. Of course, it is also well known that Pope John Paul II had real concerns about the way Archbishop Romero handled the Church's relationship with the Salvadoran regime. And many in Rome were not amused when Msgr Oscar Romero suspended the celebration of Mass throughout El Salvador - as an act of protest at the death of his friend, Fr Rutilio Grande SJ.

Sadly, Romero's reputation, tarnished by association, hasn't been helped by the fact that many of those involved in liberation theology, as well as campaigners for the ordination of women priests and homosexual rights within the Church, are sometimes quite vocal in backing the Cause for his Canonisation. The Oscar Romero Trust, which campaigns for his Cause in the UK, seems only able to attract Protestants or liberal members of the Catholic Church - some of whom even seem to have links with the Soho Masses (see "News & Notes" here). Romero's typical fan-base, then, tends to be made up of a dying breed, which many affectionately call "the Tabletista."

Until Romero begins to appeal to a more traditional Catholic following, many believe that his road to sainthood will be a bumpy one - even if Pope Benedict XVI has said of him:

"I have no doubt he will be beatified...He was certainly a great witness for the faith, a man of great Christian virtue who was committed to peace and against dictatorship."

[Picture note: A statue of Archbishop Oscar Romero in the city of Santa Ana, El Salvador; the author of this work, Juan Miguel, has released this image into the public domain; source: Wikimedia Commons (here). NB - this picture is a detail from the original work]