It is fitting that the 25th anniversary of Romero's death is on Good Friday.  Perhaps his idea of "thinking with the Church" can say something to all of us.

                                                    Happy Easter!
                        Thinking with the Church, the Body of Christ in History

Archbishop Oscar Romero's episcopal motto was Sentir con la Iglesia "to feel or to think with the church." Romero often made the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.  Romero, however, led the Archdiocese of San Salvador as he saw fit.  He was often in trouble with the Vatican and always in trouble with other Salvadoran bishops.  What, then, did it mean to Romero to think with the Church?  To think with the church meant to identify with the Body of the Risen Christ in history, sacrament of salvation in the world.  To identify with the Church meant to embrace its mission, the mission of the Risen Jesus, to proclaim the Reign of God to the poor.

The power of the Gospel is revealed in particular historical circumstances.  In 1980 thinking with the Church demanded discernment that was attentive to the particular circumstances of the local Catholic community.  Romero had a great capacity to listen, as though he wanted to be sure of the sensus fidelium, to see what the people thought.  To think with the church meant to evangelize in concrete circumstances of the poor and powerless, exposing personal sin and sinful structures that pushed the poor aside, proclaiming and promoting the love and justice of the Reign of God, undeterred by repressive forces that served under another standard. It wasn't necessary to tell the campesinos that they were oppressed or who their oppressors were.  Both were obvious.

A great influence on Archbishop Romero was Fr. Rutilio Grande, S.J., leader of the Jesuit Pastoral team in Aguilares. Rutilio Grande followed the Fathers of the Church and Jesus himself by describing the reign of God as a banquet.  The material world is like the table of the Eucharist, a common table, beautifully adorned, with room for everyone to pull up a chair.

Monsenor Romero found himself with a choice:  to continue to please the nuncio, whose reactions were informed by the reactionary sector of Salvadoran society, or to support his clergy, whose concerns were those of the suffering people. Romero opted for unity with the priests and with the poor majority of the people.  When the clergy wrote in support of the archbishop, they entitled their statement "To touch the Archbishop is to Touch the Heart of the Church."

Romero clearly condemned the institutionalized violence of an unjust society, the repressive violence of the state, and terrorist violence.  In the pulpit Romero was transformed, captured by the Spirit, another man, completely different.  The hospital where Romero stayed was a place of prayer, of consulting with God.  Romero was manipulated; he was manipulated by God.

"The teaching of the Church demanded of Romero intellectual assent and much more. The teaching of the Church demanded that he read the signs of the times in the light of the Gospel.  The teaching of the Church demanded that he pay attention to the concrete circumstances of the communities of the archdiocese and to the needs of Salvadoran society as a whole.  The teaching of the Church called him to put himself on the line, to overcome his natural timidity, to identify himself with the church, the people of God, the Body of Christ in history.   It called him to preach good news to the poor and to accept whatever conflict that might entail.  Sometimes those conflicts were with members of the Church who understood its teaching differently, with the nuncio, who 'lives very far from the problems of our clergy and our humble people', with Vatican officials who were often misinformed, with oligarchs who absolutized their wealth, with solders who absolutized their power, or with members of political movements who absolutized their organizations.. . St. Ignatius's 'to be of one mind with the Church' would be 'to be of one mind with the Church incarnated in this people who stand in need of liberation.'" Fr. Douglas Marcouillere, S.J. "Archbishop with an Attitude, Oscar Romero's Sentir con la Iglesia." Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits, 35/3, May 2003, p. 51.

Fr. Benjamin J. Urmston, S.J.
Xavier University
3800 Victory Parkway
Cincinnati, OH 45207
513-745-3320
urmston@xavier.edu
www.xu.edu/peace/ben.htm
fax: 513 745-3371