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Proceso 1137
March 16, 2005
ISSN 0259-9864
Editorial: Father Ellacuria’s thoughts on Monsignor Romero
Politics: Monsignor Romero and the national politics
Economy: The economic model seen through the light of Monsignor Romero’s thoughts
Father Ellacuria’s thoughts on Monsignor Romero
Martyrs understand martyrs better. That is why I would like
to remember Monsignor Romero now through the eyes of father Ellacuria. And I
would like to do that in a form of meditation because that could help us to
stand before the mystery of God, and before the mystery of these two great men
that go beyond us, but that, far from seeing us from a distance, they get closer
and embrace us. I will recall four phrases of Ellacuria about Monsignor Romero.
“Monsignor Romero was an exemplar follower of Jesus of Nazareth”
Ellacuria was not a flatterer. But for him, Monsignor Romero was a prophet, a
pastor, and a martyr. He was a noted Christian and a noted Salvadoran. Ellacuria
connected the existence of Monsignor Romero with the life of Jesus of Nazareth:
“Jesus used justice to go to the bottom of things, and at the same time he had
the eyes and the heart full of compassion to understand human beings… He was a
great man”. And that is exactly what he saw on Monsignor Romero. He was a
fervent believer, certainly, but most of all he was a noted “follower”, someone
who once again historically revived, 2,000 years later, the spirit of Jesus of
Nazareth.
This filled Ellacuria with joy. Monsignor was not only a friend, he not only
asked him for help during the important moments of his life, help to write
pastoral letters, or in press conferences after his last homilies, but it was a
greater gift: the presence of that Jesus that Ellacuria had intelligently
studied through the Bible, and that he had known and meditated about since his
younger days with the Spiritual Exercises of San Ignacio.
I believe that the characteristic of Monsignor Romero that reminded Ellacuria
about Jesus can be summed up in the following thoughts: he was impressed by his
enormous sense of compassion before the suffering of the people, before the pain
of the poor. He was impressed by his boundless sense of freedom to tell the
truth that he used to defend people and to demand the conversion of others. He
was impressed by his firmness in the middle of persecutions, contempt, and
misunderstandings, something that came even from his fellow bishops. And he was
impressed by his faith –just like the faith of Jesus- before the mystery of a
Father-God: a Father, because Monsignor rested on him; and God because he would
never let him rest. I have said this in several occasions: father Ellacuria’s
faith was guided by the faith of Monsignor Romero.
And he also spoke about Monsignor Romero as an “exemplar” follower. That is,
someone that has to be followed as well. For being the way he was: full of
mercy, fair, truthful, idealistic, with his behavior, Monsignor invited others
to become followers as well. He did not put it in these words, because of an
obvious attitude of modesty, but that is, I believe, what Ellacuria had in mind
when he said that he was an “exemplar” follower of Jesus. Today, 25 years after
his death, there is a great need for that Monsignor, an example of the
Salvadoran citizen and an example of a Christian. To follow him is the most
important thing we can do.
I usually remember that when they arrested John Baptist, Jesus began to preach.
And in El Salvador I like to add that when they killed Rutilio Grande, the voice
of Monsignor Romero emerged, and that when Monsignor Romero was killed father
Ellacuria picked-up that voice. I once heard an employee of the UCA saying
“Since Monsignor Romero was killed no one has spoken in the same way as father
Ellacuria has”. It is crucial to keep alive that chain of examples. We have to
be part of it as well.
“It is difficult to speak about Monsignor Romero, without speaking about the
people”
Living in exile, in the early eighties, Ellacuria wrote an article about “The
true people of God according to Monsignor Romero”. For Ellacuria, it was very
clear that God and the people were the two pillars over which Monsignor based
his hope, and he stated it very clearly. He saw in Monsignor someone who
certainly loved his people, but also saw someone that that reflected about that
people, about their historical reality and its meaning for the Christian faith.
It is important to remember that both, Monsignor and Ellacuria, one from the
church and one from the voice of theology, called the people “a suffering
follower of the Lord”, “the crucified people”. It was by the end of the
seventies, and –as far as I know- no one had spoken like that before.
Both of them also believed that that “people” could become “the people of God”,
and that such people had to have special characteristics. Remembering what
Monsignor Romero had said and done for his people, what he had given to the
people, and what the people had given to Monsignor, Ellacuria described like
that four characteristics of the true people of God: “the preference for the
poor”, “the historical incarnation in the struggles of the people for justice
and liberation”, “the introduction of the Christian yeast in the struggle for
justice”, and “the persecution because of the search for the Reign of God in
that struggle”.
Today, when we are not sure what to do with the people and with the struggle for
justice, there is plenty to meditate about in those words. The fact that
Ellacuria –the politician, the theologian of liberation- usually spoke like
that, should not surprise anyone. But to radicalize that language precisely
remembering an archbishop, gives us plenty to think about –and makes us feel
devotion-. And precisely because Monsignor Romero encouraged the historical
struggle for justice the seed of Christianity was present in that struggle. The
historical struggle and Christianity do not blend easily. However, Ellacuria was
able to see that miracle in the work of Monsignor Romero. And the suffering of
so many people proved that both things could go together.
“With Monsignor Romero, God walked in El Salvador”
The UCA did not even have a chapel. In one of the classrooms, three days after
Romero was murdered, father Ellacuria, as the rector of the University,
organized a religious event to remember and to thank Monsignor Romero. The death
of Monsignor –because of the horrible crime that was committed and because of
the fervor of Romero- made him reflect about the ultimate meaning of life,
history, and reality. I believe that Ellacuria did not often wonder about this
issue in such a radical manner.
In that context, he spoke about God, about his ineffable mystery, and about how
close he was to us, and that is when he stated that “With Monsignor Romero, God
walked in El Salvador”. It takes intelligence to say things like that, however,
that is not enough. Mysticism is also necessary to go beyond the apparent
surface of things. I even doubt that the canonization documents –when the day
finally arrives- will be able to describe the situation with such precision,
with such depth, with such innocent and truthful words.
“Monsignor Romero was already ahead of us”
For Ellacuria, a leader was that one that leads the way. That was what Monsignor
Romero was for him, and he understood that the people saw Romero in the same
way. I will finish my article with these words that Ellacuria pronounced in 1985
when the UCA was honored to give a posthumous Honoris Causa Doctorate to
Monsignor Romero. These are words of thankfulness and words of acknowledgement.
“Certainly Monsignor Romero asked for our collaboration in several occasions,
and this was for us a great honor, because of the man who requested that help
and because of the reasons he had to ask… However, in all of these
collaborations, there is no doubt who the master was and who was the helper, who
was the pastor that led the way and who was the follower, who was the prophet
who unveiled the mystery and who was the disciple, who was the voice and who was
the echo”.
I never heard Ignacio Ellacuria speak about no one in the same way he spoke
about Monsignor Romero, and because Ellacuria was not a flatterer, his words
offer to us a great truth. These words reveal to us what Monsignor Romero really
meant to Ellacuria: an older brother to walk with through history giving life to
the people and guiding us to the ineffable mystery of God.
Monsignor Romero and the national politics
During these days in which the parishioners of El Salvador
and those of other countries prepare themselves to commemorate the 25th
anniversary of the death of Monsignor Romero, it is important to take a few
minutes to reflect about the figure of the pastor. The right wing called him a
rebellious bishop, someone who, because of his alleged connection with the
communists, deserved the worst slanderous attacks. Without a doubt, Roberto
d’Aubuisson took advantage of this environment to plan the murder. Because,
ultimately, in addition to his connections with the powerful sectors of the
country, d’Aubuisson assumed that the members of the oligarchy were willing to
tolerate –just like it did-, the death of a man that was in the way because of
his critical opinions about the country’s situation.
The relation of Romero with the national politicians had a considerable dose of
tension and there were plenty of misunderstandings going on. In the first place,
it was the left wing the one that did not know how to elucidate the role that
Romero was playing. To speak with the truth, during the early days at the head
of the Salvadoran Church, Monsignor Romero had not considered either how
important was the duty that he had to fulfill. That was why several circles of
the left wing accused him of being a conservative and a recalcitrant bishop in
reference to the defense of the rights of the society’s most vulnerable sectors.
However, even when Monsignor fully undertook his tasks as a pastor that had to
preach and act in the line of the Vatican II, he was always concerned about the
equilibrium between the posture that can be adopted from the church, and not
confuse this one with the revolutionary political activism of the moment. That
is why it can be constantly found in Romero’s personal daily journal, for
instance, indications not to fall into the political game of the contenders. “It
is important to clarify the situation properly –Romero wrote in his diary on
April 13th of 1978-, where there is so much political sensibility and the danger
to confuse a true faith with political performances. The need to clarify these
aspects has made me prepare, along with a smart and an enthusiastic group of
people, several norms that will help us to guide our people”.
Monsignor was willing to protect those that were persecuted, although he was
always careful that his actions were not to be confused with propaganda in favor
of a specific group. Romero was conscious about the reality of the moment
because of which, in the name of Christianity, many people enrolled themselves
in the popular organizations or in the ranks of the guerrilla. That was why he
used to say that before the considerable amount of political sensibility in the
country it was convenient to make the pertinent explanations.
In this context, it can be said that even if the left wing somehow misunderstood
the work of Romero, this political sector was not the one that rejected him. The
specific cases about which the most radical members of the left wing could not
agree with Romero do not represent the highest percentage of the conflicts that
the archbishop was involved in with the politicians. His words were aimed, most
of all, to those that held the power in their hands, people that with their
behavior had intensified the level of violence of the country during that
period. In other words, the left wing and the right wing share certain
responsibilities in reference to the situation of the country, just like Romero
thought, but the level of responsibility of the most conservative sectors of the
right wing is higher.
This explains why the death “sentence” of the archbishop might have come from a
political leader of the right wing. This one always blamed Romero for taking
advantage of his position as a pastor to preach about the struggle of the social
classes. In reference to this point, in a homily about poverty as a force of
liberation for the people, he declared the following: “My brothers, those who
say that the bishop, the church, and the priests have created the crisis in this
country, want to throw dust on the surface of reality… Those that have done the
country wrong are those that have created the horrendous level of social
injustice that our country is now facing… That is why the poor have led the way
to the church. A church that does not get close to the poor to denounce from
their very own situation the injustice that surrounds them is not a true church
of Jesus Christ”.
The press notes of the time reveal the consternation that the country went
through after Romero was murdered. There was not only an environment of popular
insurrection during the burial, but there was also a certain unanimity when it
came to acknowledge that with the murder of the archbishop the country had
reached the peak of a barbarian situation. El Diario de Hoy –which used its
pages to attack him without any compassion at all-, after several days of
silence in its editorial about the subject, on March 28th of 1980, it indicated
that “in the service for God and for the country, he found death precisely in
the same way that he tried to prevent others from dying. In a context of extreme
violence, in a crime that was prepared in the shadows, a crime prepared by the
shadows of intransigency”.
There is no doubt that those who planned and executed the murder of the
archbishop of San Salvador did not think that this was an irreparable crime. It
seems, in a way, the many things were expected from the death of Romero. With
the distance that separates us from those events, it is clear that there were,
at least, three immediate benefits that the authors of this barbaric actions
actually got:
1. The radicalization of the conflict. That was how the level of violence was
intensified.
2. The right wing became closer, which had been divided in the past between a
moderate group, represented by the members of the army that planned the coup
d’état of 1979, an the most recalcitrant members of this sector, who thought
that the solution of the conflict was connected with the extermination of all of
the insurgents in order to prevent the triumph of a revolution, or, in the best
of the cases, the possibility of having to share their properties as it had
happened with the shy agrarian reform implemented by the Board of the Government
at the time.
3. The murder of Romero took away from the church its most important voice, that
one that preached in a special way for the end of violence.
In reference to the objective of increasing a violent pressure over the
citizenry, in fact, after the death of the archbishop there was a radicalization
of the confrontation between the left an the right wing. That was how it became
evident to think about a total war between one and another band. We would only
have to remember the tragic events that took place during the burial in order to
have an idea of how hectic the environment became. Before the reaction of the
popular sectors, the members of the army decided to play all of their cards in
order to end with the possibility of an insurrection.
In that context, the posture of the most radical sectors of the right wing was
unified. One of the reasons why the Board of Government failed at the time was
the political consequences of that murder. In an environment of total chaos, the
conservative sectors realized that their “salvation” required them to replace
the “progressive officials” and take over. That was how the program of reforms
was aborted, and how it was decided to corner the communists.
With the murder of Monsignor Romero, the most important voice of the church was
shut down, a voice that from a hierarchy claimed for the rights of the
Salvadorans. Even if the successor of Romero did not abandon the fight for
justice, he did not have the same level of moral and spiritual influence of the
martyr bishop. In addition, the political environment of the country had
radically changed by then. None of the actors was willing to listen to the moral
argument of the men of God.
From a very narrow political perspective, Romero disappeared before the eyes of
a barbarian action, a senseless plan. The price for defending the rights of the
most vulnerable people was his life. To a considerable extent, d’Aubuisson
achieved his goal. More blood was shed during the war, and El Salvador did
become the grave of the communists (including the alleged ones). But while now
the whole world reflects about the mystery of life before the grave of the
archbishop, the figure of the former major (d’Aubuisson) is only celebrated and
publicly remembered by fanatics that follow the man who was the personification
of evil in El Salvador.
The economic model seen through the light of Monsignor Romero’s thoughts
During the month in which the death of Monsignor Romero is
commemorated (he was killed 25 years ago), it is important to speak about the
characteristics that portrayed him not only as a man who incessantly searched
for justice and truth, in both the social and the political environments, and
who intensely criticized the prevailing Capitalism of an economic model that, to
this day, follows the same line of action. For Romero, the economy had to be on
the side of those with more needs and not at the service of those who make
larger profits.
In many of his homilies, he criticized the role of Christianity, because the
main goal of Christianity is to help others. At the same time, he invited all of
the country’s businessmen to aim several of their actions to the benefit of
those in need. However, because of such statements there were those who accused
him for being a “communist”, a dangerous term in a society that became
intolerant and polarized.
The role of the church in the context of a national crisis
During the celebrations of the Divino Salvador del Mundo (the Divine Savior of
the World), on August 6th of 1979, Monsignor Romero reminded everybody about the
mission of the church before the crisis that the country was going through: “our
vision is not the one of a politician, a sociologist, or an economist, that is
not the role of the church, the role of the church has to do with a pastoral
vision”.
Monsignor denounced the symptoms of social injustice: children working, the lack
of opportunities for the development of the youth, peasants that did not have
the necessary resources to live, laborers without rights, people who do not have
all of the benefits established by the law, retired people with a pension that
does not represent the amount of work that they had to deal with during their
productive stage, among other problems. These are the typical features of an
economic model based on an extreme sort of Capitalism, which sees people as one
more factor of production”.
Monsignor Romero stated that there are economic and ideological factors that
promote injustice in the world: corruption and a loss of governmental order, the
tergiversation of the social and the family values, the individualist
materialism, a society extremely worried about consumption, the deterioration of
the public and the private levels of honesty, and the inadequate use of the mass
media, which basically cover-up injustice and present something that is actually
part of a loss of values as a good thing. “That is where the stigmas of our
country come from: a tremendous level of moral deterioration”, he used to
preach.
The martyr archbishop said that the role of the church was to unmask these forms
of “idolatry”, which he called by a specific name: wealth, private property,
national security, and organization. These elements, by themselves, do not
become an individual feature of idolatry; however, altogether in a group do lead
to this problem.
For some people, this sort of generalizations are based on wealth and on the
sense of private property; however, the church responds that wealth is not part
of an extreme conception of reality, and that the concept of private property
does not have a definite sense. The welfare of all people is what matters, not
the wealth or the private property of just a few.
On the other hand, there is the issue of the national security, something that
the documents of Puebla call an ideology at the service of a “prevailing
Capitalism”, the source of inspiration for the repressive structure of many
countries. And it is in the name of that security, according to Monsignor
Romero, that the insecurity of the people is based on, since the rights of the
citizens are disrespected and hundreds of lives are lost.
The third kind of idolatry is the extreme conception of the popular
organization. This one can be expressed through fanaticism, sectarianism, and in
a certain elitism when people assume that their organization owns the absolute
truth.
The role of Christian people in the national problems
After approaching ourselves to the thoughts of Monsignor Romero about the crisis
the country was going through in a particular context, it is important to
reflect about the actual role that we should play as Christians and Salvadorans,
independently from the role that we play in the society as professionals,
teachers, or students, among other roles. According to the words of Monsignor
Romero, what is truly important is to live faith through all of the aspects that
surround our life, and not just work to gain an important place inside the
society, but to be able to help those in need.
This also has its implications for the professional people, because it is also
important to put their knowledge at the service of the less fortunate. The
economists, especially them, should be able to explain to us what is that world
crowded with equations in order to understand the critical socioeconomic
problems of the country. Only by trying to understand the true nature of these
problems we will be able to do a better job in the benefit of the less
fortunate. This was what Rutilio Grande did (a source of inspiration for
Monsignor Romero’s ideas), when after having the opportunity to study in
different universities throughout the world, he returned to El Paisnal and put
himself at the service of his people.
The words of Monsignor Romero remain alive in the present. By being a critic of
his own time, he was able to mention all of the ideas that the Salvadoran
society can take advantage of, even today, especially in the present
conjunction, where the structural problems that created the civil war are still
affecting us: “our voices are also aimed to those who unfairly defend their
interests as well as their economic, their social, and their political
privileges, those who are to blame for so much pain and violence. Allow us to
remind you that they have to listen to the voice of justice and the poor, just
like the cause of the Lord, the judge of all men”.
At present, just like it happened back then, several years after an economic
model that has favored the business elite was implemented, the voices of those
in need are raised once again, and they demand solutions for the socioeconomic
problems. Hopefully these voices, just like Monsignor Romero expected, can be
heard, and that their fair requests are considered and resolved. That is the
only way to consolidate justice and peace in this country.
In this context, it is necessary to remember the words that Monsignor Romero
said before he was murdered: “it is necessary to fight against the selfishness
hidden in those who do not want to share what they own with the others. It is
necessary to find the profound Evangelic truth that tells us that we should help
the less fortunate”.
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