This past weekend driving around San Salvador I noticed quite a few people wearing T-shirts featuring the face of Archbishop Óscar Romero. It has been 32 years since his assassination during the civil war, but he remains an important figure in El Salvador. Here are a few of his words reflecting his heart for the poor, for human rights, and for justice.

      “This is the church that I want. A church that does not rely on the privileges and the worth of earthly things. A church ever more detached from earthly things, so that she can judge them more freely from her perspective of the Gospel, from her poverty. ”     

(from a sermon, August 28, 1977)

“Defense of human rights, equality, and freedom is not only a matter of policy. It is a matter of policy, but of policy rooted in the Gospel. The Gospel is the great defender and proclaimer of all the great fundamental rights of the person…

The Gospel will not fail. It will always cry out for human freedom and human dignity, even in the worst conditions of persecution.

  ( excerpts form a sermon, January 8, 1978)