President Obama embraced the beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador Saturday ahead of celebrations in El Salvador over the controversial religious figure’s progression toward sainthood.
“I join people in El Salvador and around the world today in welcoming the beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero,” Obama said. “He fearlessly confronted the evils he saw, guided by the needs of his beloved pueblo, the poor and oppressed people of El Salvador.”
Romero was shot while performing Mass in 1980 just one day after imploring the country’s military to abandon their orders to violently repress a leftist uprising.
Pope Francis called Romero a “martyr for the Catholic faith” Tuesday. Leaders within the Vatican had stalled his sainthood for years out of fear that his legacy was more political than religious.
“El Salvador has come a long way in the last 35 years,” Obama said. “Today in El Salvador, and all of Central America, the United States is guided by the vision of Archbishop Romero.”
The civil war that swept through El Salvador in Romero’s lifetime and the decade that followed his death resulted in a number of human rights abuses. The country is still suffering from political unrest and rampant gang violence.
