The life of Oscar Romero, like Elizabeth Ann Seton\u2019s, teaches the need to do the works of mercy, including the very difficult ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe corporal and spiritual works of mercy should become ever more the style of our life,\u201d as Pope Francis put it \u2014 a daily duty.<\/p>\n
Para la mayor\u00eda de nosotros, las obras de misericordia significan colectas de alimentos y ropa. Para Romero y la Madre Seton, signific\u00f3 tolerar terribles sufrimientos y llevar a cabo dif\u00edciles curaciones. Considera c\u00f3mo sus vidas reflejan algunas de las obras de misericordia m\u00e1s duras.<\/p>\n
Instruir a los ignorantes.<\/strong><\/p>\n Oscar Romero was born in El Salvador in 1917, where \u201cinstructing the ignorant\u201d was tough. The city offered public education for Grades 1 through 3 to give a rudimentary understanding of math and reading. But Romero’s parents wanted something more for him, so they arranged for a private tutor until age 13.<\/p>\n Nadie se sorprendi\u00f3 cuando el piadoso ni\u00f1o dijo que quer\u00eda ser sacerdote cat\u00f3lico e ingres\u00f3 en un seminario menor. Su educaci\u00f3n continu\u00f3 con estudios en la Universidad Gregoriana de Roma. Fue ordenado sacerdote en 1942 y devolvi\u00f3 el favor de instruir a los ignorantes convirti\u00e9ndose en redactor del peri\u00f3dico de la archidi\u00f3cesis, donde adquiri\u00f3 fama de fidelidad al Magisterio de la Iglesia.<\/p>\n The impoverished childhood of the Salvadoran son of Santos and Guadalupe could not be more different than Elizabeth Ann Bayley\u2019s affluent early years in 18th-century New York.<\/p>\n Elizabeth creci\u00f3 comprometida con la fe episcopaliana de su familia, y se cas\u00f3 y empez\u00f3 a criar a sus cinco hijos en ella.<\/p>\n A diferencia de \u00d3scar Romero, Isabel se hizo cat\u00f3lica m\u00e1s tarde, despu\u00e9s de llevar a su marido enfermo a Italia con la esperanza de que se curara. All\u00ed muri\u00f3, y poco despu\u00e9s la familia Filicchi la introdujo en la Iglesia cat\u00f3lica. La familia Filicchi sigui\u00f3 en contacto con ella cuando regres\u00f3 a casa, aprendi\u00f3 la fe y comenz\u00f3 a instruir a sus hijos.<\/p>\n \u201cYou would have been pleased to hear their questions about St. Michael and how eagerly they listened to the history of the good offices done to us by the Blessed angels,\u201d the still-Protestant Elizabeth wrote in 1804. After each lesson, she said, \u201cI bless them each with the Sign of the Cross and I look up to God with a humble hope that he will not forsake us.\u201d<\/p>\n Aconsejar a los dubitativos.<\/strong><\/p>\n Romero was martyred at Mass in 1980 by unknown assailants allied with El Salvador\u2019s ruling regime, at a time when Marxist elements in El Salvador were active, and when controversial forms of \u201cliberation theology\u201d were stirring in the Catholic Church. As a result, some Catholics feel an unease towards Romero, as if he was somehow a spokesman for this theology.<\/p>\n Chris Bain, l\u00edder de una organizaci\u00f3n caritativa cat\u00f3lica brit\u00e1nica, explic\u00f3 a la Agencia Cat\u00f3lica de Noticias (CNA) c\u00f3mo sucedi\u00f3 esto.<\/p>\n El Salvador was \u201crun by a repressive, self-styled right-wing regime whose brutality was justified as necessary to stop the country from becoming communist, an approach supported by the U.S. government at the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Sin abrazar la teolog\u00eda de la liberaci\u00f3n, Romero habl\u00f3 contra las atrocidades del r\u00e9gimen gobernante y aconsej\u00f3 a otros que hicieran lo mismo. Esta es la raz\u00f3n por la que fue asesinado.<\/p>\n After his martyrdom the political Left \u201cmade him in their image without understanding him fully, and the Right colluded.\u201d<\/p>\n What people don\u2019t understand, said the postulator for Romero\u2019s cause, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, was that Romero was not a \u201creformer, let alone a politician, as some have wanted to see him, exploiting his name.\u201d Instead, he was a \u201cman of God, a man of prayer, a man of obedience and love for people.\u201d<\/p>\n Soportar las injusticias con paciencia.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cRomero\u2019s witness of martyrdom, starting from Latin America, through Pope Francis, can help the whole of America, the whole of Europe,\u201d Archbishop Paglia told the Catholic News Agency.<\/p>\n El Salvador\u2019s government had tolerated, or facilitated, the murder of 30 priests in his archdiocese, and death squads had killed many catechists and abducted many lay faithful. In the face of these trials, Archbishop Romero said he could find \u201crest, peace and strength\u201d in Christ, and felt that the martyrs would \u201cfeel His closeness when offering their last breath.\u201d<\/p>\n On March 24, 1980, Oscar Romero gave what was to be his last homily in the Hospital of Divine Providence. \u201cWe know that every effort to improve society, especially when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mientras Romero levantaba el c\u00e1liz en la consagraci\u00f3n de la Eucarist\u00eda, un asesino a sueldo entr\u00f3 en la capilla y lo mat\u00f3 a tiros.<\/p>\n St. John Paul II noted that Romero died as other saints did who were killed at the altar\u2014St. Stanislaus of Krakow and St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury\u2014saying, \u201cThey killed him right at the most sacred moment, during the highest and most divine act.\u201d<\/p>\n A strong connection between the Eucharist and martyrdom of a different sort was a daily part of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton\u2019s life.<\/p>\n Tras ingresar en la Iglesia cat\u00f3lica, la Madre Seton se hizo religiosa profesa y fund\u00f3 una congregaci\u00f3n que atend\u00eda a ni\u00f1os y pobres. Trabajaba desde una oficina situada de modo que pod\u00eda ver el tabern\u00e1culo a trav\u00e9s de la puerta de la capilla durante todo el d\u00eda.<\/p>\n Looking to the tabernacle in the midst of her duties, she would at times experience what she described as \u201ca daily martyrdom. I love and live, and love and live in a state of separation indescribable.\u201d Her martyrdom was a profound sense of absence: \u201cIn meditation, prayer, communion, I find no soul; in the beings around me, dearly as I love them, I find no soul; in that tabernacle I know he is, but I see not, feel not.\u201d<\/p>\n Amonestar a los pecadores.<\/strong><\/p>\n Monse\u00f1or \u00d3scar Romero fue asesinado in odium fidei, <\/em>out of hatred for the faith, and that included Romero\u2019s adherence to Christ\u2019s message of service to the poor. His message was \u201clike a slap in the face to a contemporary society folded in on itself, each individual interested in his own well-being,\u201d Archbishop Paglia told CNA.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is inconceivable,\u201d said Romero in a September 9, 1979 homily, \u201cthat someone is called \u2018Christian\u2019 and does not give preference to the poor as Christ did. This is not Christianity! \u2026 Let\u2019s say to everyone: we must take the cause of the poor seriously, as if it were our own cause, or even more, for it is indeed the very cause of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n La vida de un santo implica inevitablemente la desagradable tarea de amonestar a los pecadores. En su Obras completas, <\/em>As\u00ed lo atestiguan varias cartas que la Madre Seton escribi\u00f3 a los padres de ciertos alumnos.<\/p>\n She told one set of parents that their child had a \u201cdisposition to self-will which made herself and us unhappy.\u201d In reference to another child, she spoke of the \u201ctrue danger\u201d of \u201cpushing her too far too fast,\u201d forcing \u201can exterior look without the interior spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n Para consolar a los afligidos.<\/strong><\/p>\n Like any loving mother, Elizabeth Seton believed that admonishment of a child\u2014if done with kindness and sensitivity\u2014is meant for the sake of a greater comfort. And that is also true of a bishop, a spiritual father and representative of Mother Church.<\/p>\n At the beatification of St. Oscar Romero, Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, said that \u201cthe figure of Romero is still alive and giving comfort to the marginalized of the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n In a similar way, the legacy of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton\u2019s service to the poor has continued to bless untold numbers of people over the past two centuries.<\/p>\n TOM HOOPES<\/strong>,\u00a0autor m\u00e1s reciente de El Rosario de San Juan Pablo II, es escritor residente en el Benedictine College de Kansas, donde imparte clases. Es anfitri\u00f3n de La extraordinaria Stor<\/a>y podcast sobre la vida de Cristo. Su libro Lo que dijo realmente el Papa Francisco<\/a> ya est\u00e1 disponible en Audible<\/a>. Antiguo reportero en la zona de Washington, D.C., fue secretario de prensa del Presidente del Comit\u00e9 de Medios y Arbitrios de la C\u00e1mara de Representantes de los Estados Unidos y pas\u00f3 10 a\u00f1os como editor del peri\u00f3dico National Catholic Register y de la revista Faith & Family. Su trabajo aparece con frecuencia en el Register, Aleteia y Catholic Digest. Vive en Atchison, Kansas, con su esposa, April, y tiene nueve hijos.<\/em>
\nImagen: Creative Commons 3.0<\/em><\/p>\n