# Óscar Romero Óscar Arnulfo Romero (1917-1980) was the Archbishop of San Salvador and an outspoken critic of state violence who was assassinated while saying Mass in March 1980; he was canonized in 2018. He is the namesake of the [[Romero Institute]] and, in [[The Octopus]] frame, the inverse pole of the Catholic-right story. ## Assassination and canonization As El Salvador slid toward civil war, Romero denounced repression, torture, and death squads. On March 24, 1980 he was shot dead celebrating Mass in a hospital chapel. The UN Truth Commission for El Salvador concluded the killing was ordered by Major Roberto D'Aubuisson, a death-squad leader and later founder of the right-wing ARENA party -- though no one was ever convicted, and the murder remains formally unsolved. [[Pope Francis]] canonized Romero as a martyr in October 2018. ## Epistemic status The assassination, the Truth Commission's attribution to D'Aubuisson, and the canonization are documented; the lack of any conviction is the key legal caveat. Romero matters to the Octopus frame as a counter-example: a churchman murdered *by* the anti-communist right and elevated *by* the Jesuit pope the traditionalists oppose -- a reminder that the Cold-War Catholic apparatus cut more than one way. ## See also - [[The Octopus]] - [[Romero Institute]] - [[Pope Francis]]