Pope Francis Calls Slain Salvadorean Archbishop Oscar Romero 'A Martyr,' Speeds Up His Beatification

Monica Cantilero Wednesday, February 04, 2015

Salvadorans carry banners with the image of slain Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero during the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of his death at the cathedral in downtown San Salvador on March 24, 2010. | REUTERS/Luis Galdamez

Pope Francis has declared that assassinated Salvadorean Archbishop Oscar Romero died as a martyr, expediting the way for his beatification.

The late archbishop is now one step away from being declared a saint as those pronounced as martyrs do not require a miracle to enter the process of beatification, BBC reported.

Beatification is the step before canonization, or sainthood, in the Roman Catholic Church.

For years, the Church blocked the process because of concerns that Archbishop Romero had Marxist ideas. The bishop was one of the main advocates of Liberation Theology, which interprets faith through the eyes of the poor.

The Church prohibits designation of a martyr to people who were killed out of hatred for the Catholic faith. There are doubts over the reason why the bishop was killed – if he was slain for his politics in support of the poor or for his faith.

The bishop founded the Nationalist Republican Alliance, or Arena Party, which governed El Salvador from 1989 until 2009.

Bishop Romero was an outspoken critic of the military regime at the outset of El Salvador's civil war. He condemned the right-wing death squads in Guatemala as well as the oppression of the poor. The bishop called for an end to all political violence.

He was shot dead while celebrating Mass on March 24, 1980 in San Salvador, right after delivering his homily. He was 62 years old.

A U.N.-sponsored truth commission in 1993 reported that the archbishop was assassinated by a death squad under the orders of Roberto D'Aubuisson, a former Salvadorean army officer, who died in 1992.

Pope Francis unlocked the bishop's sainthood process after his election in 2013. The date for Romero's beatification has yet to be announced.

Last August, Pope Francis called the late bishop a "man of God," in hopes of a quick path to beatification.

In another development, the Pope said on Sunday that he is set to visit Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, on June 6 this year.

His agenda there will be to boost efforts toward brotherhood in the country that was ravaged by war two decades ago. The 1992-95 Bosnian war took over 100,000 lives. The prosecution of war crimes suspects is still ongoing.