José Atilio Benítez, Liduvina Magarín, Monsignor Osoro and the parish priest of the Basílica Hispanoamericana, Alejandro Fernández./ Photo: El Salvador Embassy.
The Diplomat. Madrid
El Salvador’s Embassy in Spain, commemorated this weekend the XXXV anniversary of the assassination of Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero with a religious act presided over by the Archbishop of Madrid, Monsignor Carlos Osoro.
The celebration, which took place at the Basílica Hispanoamericana de La Merced, included the presence of the deputy minister for El Salvador citizens abroad, Liduvina Magarín, the El Salvador ambassador to Spain, José Atilio Benítez, representatives of the diplomatic corps, members of this representation and of the El Salvador and Latin American community in Spain, according to information issued by the Embassy in a communiqué sent to The Diplomat (in Spanish).
During the liturgy, Monsignor Osoro recalled the figure of the El Salvador priest “as a universal man, a man for the whole church, who was a model who designed his life from God’s word”.
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Óscar Romero will be beatified on 23 May in San Salvador
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For her part, Liduvina Magarín reminded those present of the beatification process for Monsignor Romero at the Vatican, and the figure of the man who is already the most universal of El Salvador’s citizens; “He was a priest who preached the gospel of the poor, someone who died in defence of his faith”.
Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero was assassinated on 24 March 1980 while he said mass. In 1994 the Archdiocese of San Salvador requested that the Vatican canonise him. On 3 February he was declared a Martyr, and on 23 May he will be beatified in San Salvador.