Amplify’d from communities.canada.com
Romero, a once-cautious bishop who ended up becoming a giant figure in the conflict that Central America's rural poor waged against military dictatorships, was assassinated in 1980 as he presided at mass.
Despite calls for him to be beatified, the Vatican is moving slowly. No one really knows why. But an article in the excellent online scholarly journal, Religion Dispatches, speculates it may be because Romero is now identified with "liberation theology," which is out of favour in Rome.
Miami University religious studies professor Michelle Conzalez Maldonado writes in Religion Dispatches:
"The symbolism of Obama’s visit is profound. Romero is currently under review for beatification, a somewhat uneasy process given Romero’s association with liberation theology and Pope Benedict’s recently published book on Jesus that clearly states Jesus was not the revolutionary often described by political and revolutionary (a.k.a. liberation) theologies. While many are casting Obama’s tribute to Romero as a recognition of his activism on behalf of human rights, Romero himself would remind us that this is a political act."
Whatever the case within the Catholic hierarchy, Obama's historic visit on March 23 (the 31st anniversary of Romero's assassination), shows he's not entirely afraid to rile the Vatican nor indirectly criticize earlier U.S. administrations, which trained the Salvadoran military suspected to have ordered Romero's killing (which became the subject of a movie with Raul Julia.)
However, a recent article in The National Catholic Reporter criticizes Obama for not going nearly far enough. The article quotes priests and brothers in the Maryknoll Order, who lament that Obama refrained from linking Romero's killing to U.S. interventionism.
See the original Religion Dispatches article here.
Read the National Catholic Reporter article.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bz64d
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