During the three years he was Archbishop of San Salvador, the saint preached a message of conversion that was so disturbing it cost him his life.

In many ways, St Óscar Romero had a spectacularly positive vision for human life. He knew God’s presence, he saw the beautiful image of God all around him and he trusted in the coming of a Kingdom in which all will be fully alive. His preaching was filled with hope to the end. As he said just moments before he was shot dead celebrating Mass on 24 March 1980, the grain of wheat may need to fall and die in order to bear fruit, but the harvest of the Kingdom will be abundant beyond measure: “This is the hope that inspires us as Christians. We know that every effort to improve society, especially when injustice and sin are so widespread, is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that God requires of us … Our work does not remain here; it is gathered and purified by the Spirit of God.”

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