The 2018 canonisation of Oscar Romero, the murdered archbishop of El Salvador, focused the world’s attention on one of the Cold War’s most notorious crimes, and on one of its most remarkable victims.

The 2018 canonisation of Oscar Romero, the murdered archbishop of El Salvador, focused the world’s attention on one of the Cold War’s most notorious crimes, and on one of its most remarkable victims. He was assassinated while saying Mass 40 years ago, on 24 March 1980. His memory must be kept alive.

Saint Oscar Romero was a prophet in his own lifetime, and true prophetic teaching does not die. One of his most influential pupils and admirers is Pope Francis, a former archbishop from the same continent, who was also caught in the ideological crossfire when the far-right and far-left – proxies to a degree for the United States and the Soviet Union – battled ruthlessly for the soul of Latin America.

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