Archbishop Oscar Romero formally recognised as a martyr. Long, long overdue.

Vatican News reported today:

After decades of debate within the church, Pope Francis formally recognized that Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed "in hatred of the faith" and not for purely political reasons.
Pope Francis signed the decree Feb. 3, recognizing as martyrdom the March 24, 1980, assassination of Archbishop Romero in a San Salvador hospital chapel as he celebrated Mass. The decree clears the way for the beatification of Archbishop Romero. 
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1500492.htm

For those who want to know more about this amazing man, this is a good starting point

http://www.uscatholic.org/culture/social-justice/2009/02/oscar-romero-bishop-poor

And this a good link to the man in his own words, speaking truth to power

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/romero.html

And many Catholics, including myself, think it a great source of scandal that it has taken thirty-five years for him to be recognised - his cause was ignored by Rome many times for political reasons.

Fr James Martin speaks for many of us when he says:

Now that Archbishop Oscar Romero has been declared a martyr, and his beatification ceremony will soon be announced, we can rejoice. We can that the church is finally recognizing someone who died "in odium fidei," that is, out of hatred for the faith.

At the same time, the church needs to do an examination of conscience, and admit that the delay in declaring him a martyr is close to scandalous, held up apparently, as CNS reported, because some groups tried to "co-opt" him. Such a defense seems weak: There have always been, and there always will be people who try to co-opt the saints for their own purposes: this is not new, and this was hardly the case just for Archbishop Romero. (There are currently worries, for example, that Dorothy Day will be "co-opted" by some groups.) Mainly the cause was delayed because Archbishop Romero was seen as too closely aligned with liberation theology, which had fallen out of favor in Rome.

Yet Monsenor Romero's martyrdom should have trumped those concerns. When a person makes the ultimate sacrifice, shows the "greater love," as Jesus called it, and gives their life for God, for the People of God, for the church, other considerations should be put in their proper place, and seen for what they are: distractions. The delay in his case is close to a scandal.

So we have to admit that in this case the church was misled. Archbishop Romero could have been declared a martyr much earlier: the day after he was murdered while celebrating Mass.

Blessed Oscar Romero, pray for us