VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis decreed Tuesday that slain Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed in 1980 out of hatred for his Catholic faith, approving a martyrdom declaration that sets the stage for his beatification.
Francis, the first Latin American pope, approved the decree honoring one of the heroes of Latin American Christians at a meeting with the head of the Vatican’s saint-making office.
Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, was gunned down by right-wing death squads March 24, 1980 while celebrating Mass. A human rights campaigner, Romero had spoken out against repression by the Salvadoran army at the beginning of the country’s 1980-1992 civil war between the right-wing government and leftist rebels.
His assassination presaged a conflict that killed nearly 75,000.
Romero’s sainthood cause had been held up by the Vatican for years out of concern over his perceived association with liberation theology, the Latin American-inspired Catholic theology that holds that Jesus’ teachings require followers to fight for social and economic justice.