Oscar Romero fact sheet
Your Name: Bishop Oscar Romero
Date of birth: August 15, 1917
Date of death: March 24, 1980
Place of birth: Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador- Isolated mountain village
Place of death: San Salvador, El Salvador
Family Life: 5 brothers, 2 sisters (Gustavo, Zaida, Romulo, Mamerto, Arnoldo, Gasper, and Aminta). Parents were Santos Romero, and Guadalupe de Jesus Galdamez. Lived where 40% of land was owned by only 13 families.
Education: Entered (government funded) public school, offered grades one through three and then privately tutored until age thirteen. My father, Santos, had been training Romero in carpentry. Left home to enter the seminary and studied in El Salvador and in Rome and was ordained in 1942.
Occupation: Spent the first two and a half decades of my ministerial career as a parish priest and diocesan secretary in San Miguel. In 1970 I became auxiliary bishop of San Salvador and served in that position until 1974 when the Vatican named me to the diocese of Santiago de María, a poor, rural region which included my boyhood hometown. In 1977 I returned to the capital to succeed San Salvador's aged metropolitan archbishop.
Accomplishments: I used my moral authority of my position as archbishop to speak on behalf for all of those who couldn’t speak for themselves. I became known as “Voice of the Voiceless.” My campaign for human rights in El Salvador won me many national and international admirers as well as a Nobel Peace nomination.
Challenges: After speaking out on behalf of the poor and victims of repression, it led to numerous conflicts with the government and the church. Shot dead while celebrating Mass at the small chapel of the cancer hospital where I lived.
Date of birth: August 15, 1917
Date of death: March 24, 1980
Place of birth: Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador- Isolated mountain village
Place of death: San Salvador, El Salvador
Family Life: 5 brothers, 2 sisters (Gustavo, Zaida, Romulo, Mamerto, Arnoldo, Gasper, and Aminta). Parents were Santos Romero, and Guadalupe de Jesus Galdamez. Lived where 40% of land was owned by only 13 families.
Education: Entered (government funded) public school, offered grades one through three and then privately tutored until age thirteen. My father, Santos, had been training Romero in carpentry. Left home to enter the seminary and studied in El Salvador and in Rome and was ordained in 1942.
Occupation: Spent the first two and a half decades of my ministerial career as a parish priest and diocesan secretary in San Miguel. In 1970 I became auxiliary bishop of San Salvador and served in that position until 1974 when the Vatican named me to the diocese of Santiago de María, a poor, rural region which included my boyhood hometown. In 1977 I returned to the capital to succeed San Salvador's aged metropolitan archbishop.
Accomplishments: I used my moral authority of my position as archbishop to speak on behalf for all of those who couldn’t speak for themselves. I became known as “Voice of the Voiceless.” My campaign for human rights in El Salvador won me many national and international admirers as well as a Nobel Peace nomination.
Challenges: After speaking out on behalf of the poor and victims of repression, it led to numerous conflicts with the government and the church. Shot dead while celebrating Mass at the small chapel of the cancer hospital where I lived.