Óscar Romero and Catholic Social Teaching

We have now arrived at the second dimension of God’s presence in and solidarity with the Salvadoran people as a political community made up of women and men who are coming together to wake up from decades or even centuries of slumber and who are organizing themselves together in solidarity with one another to become artisans of their own destiny. In the foregoing discussion, we saw that San Romero calls the crucified people to conversion – to move from conformity, inertia, and isolation to identification with a people united and on the move. His fourth pastoral letter on “The Church’s Mission Amid the National Crisis” gives pastoral legs to this theological vision, proposing a “mass apostolate” in the Archdiocese that would facilitate personal and social transformation by giving all Christians “a critical outlook, an ability to value themselves as persons, made in the image of God, in control of their own destiny. The mass apostolate ought to be a liberating response by the church, helping the masses to become a people, and helping a people to become the people of God.” We will move onto that final goal of becoming the people of God below, but for now, let us dwell on what it means to be pueblo, a people.

San Romero, always faithful to the magisterium, turns to Gaudium et Spes when he seeks to define what it means to be a people: “Individuals, families, and the various groups which make up the civil community are aware that they cannot achieve a truly human life by their own unaided efforts. They see the need for a wider community, within which each person makes his or her specific contribution every day toward an ever broader realization of the common good. For this purpose they set up a political community according to various forms.” In other words, they come together in solidarity to form a people. Every people is distinct and Romero affirms the divine intention for a diversity of pueblos with a diversity of languages, cultures, political systems, and so on. There is also diversity within any given pueblo. But the common ground within a pueblo is that it is a community of human beings that comes together in solidarity to seek the common good, that conspires to create a confluence of situations in which people are able to realize themselves, be happy, seek perfection, and develop themselves as individuals and as a collective.

All of this sounds quite lovely, but in a society like San Romero’s (or like ours today), exploitation of the masses by the powerful actively stands in the way of the poor majorities entering into solidarity with one another to become an organized and politically active people. Such exploitation also prevents the privileged, who seek their own particular advantage and conspire to get it, from entering into solidarity and becoming one with the people, one with the oppressed. The Salvadoran elite did not want the Salvadoran masses to become a people and work together to not only survive but make their lives more livable. For the most part, the elites would have loved for the population to remain anesthetized, isolated, and apolitical. And they reacted with extreme violence when popular movements (viz., movements of the people) and the church began to work for solidarity, conscientization, and organization.

Throughout his homilies and especially in his third pastoral letter, “The Church and Popular Political Organizations,” San Romero denounces the violent repression unleashed by the powerful against those who sought to conscientize and organize with the Salvadoran people in pursuit of a more just and peaceful society. He also emphasizes the persecuted role of the church in this process: “The church preaches human development, and for preaching this promotion of people, for waking people out of their unhealthy state of conformity, and for urging them to be active in forging their own destiny, the church must suffer. The reason is that all those who want to keep the masses tranquilized and gullible, incapable of reshaping their lives and their own history, will feel that they are being deprived of this sad situation in which some people are able to exploit others.” Becoming un pueblo solidario—a politically conscious people united and organized in solidarity—provokes a violent reaction by the powerful because it threatens the power that they have attempted to keep to themselves for centuries. The powerful therefore up their crucifixion game and mete out the same fate of crucifixion on anyone, like Romero, who dares to enter into solidarity with the people.

Without compromising the autonomy of the people as a collective agent of historical transformation and human progress, the solidarity of el pueblo holds sacramental significance for Romero. First of all, it is God who calls people to come together as a people and insofar as a people comes together in solidarity to affirm their dignity and revindicate their rights as human beings, their inherent worth as the image of God is implied and developed. Furthermore, insofar as its struggles are just, el pueblo participates in the prophetic functions of denouncing injustice, calling human beings to conversion, and announcing a vision of a more human society. Finally, insofar as a people constructs a history in which the common good and human flourishing are made more accessible, more possible for all, a reflection of the reign of God can be glimpsed, even if in fragmentary form, here on earth. However, for San Romero, the sacramental significance of el pueblo culminates in and should be illuminated and guided by the mission and ministry of the church as pueblo de Dios.

(excerpted from chapter 13)