Courageous Witnesses · Week 2 · Grades 9–12
Guided Notes: St. Óscar Romero
- Name
- Date
- Class
Follow along as your teacher presents. Fill in each section when its slide is on the screen.
The safe choice
El Salvador in the 1970s was a country where a few rich families owned almost everything and most people were very poor. The army and secret death squads killed people who asked for change. Repression, the use of force by a blank 1 to keep people from speaking freely, was part of daily life.
Óscar Romero seemed an unlikely critic. Born in blank 2 to a family that was not rich, he had been a carpenter's apprentice and a seminarian in Rome. For more than 20 years he was a hardworking parish priest in San Miguel. He was shy and liked order. When he was named blank 3 of San Salvador in February 1977, the powerful were happy. They expected a quiet man.
The voice and the cost
Three weeks later his friend Father Rutilio Grande, a blank 4 who had been helping poor farmers organize, was shot dead along with an old man and a boy. Romero saw the bodies and resolved to walk the same path. His Sunday radio homilies began to name the murdered and the disappeared. He wrote to the blank 5 of the United States asking him to stop sending weapons to the army.
On March 23, blank 6, he addressed the soldiers directly.
“In the name of God, and in the name of this suffering people... I beg you, I implore you, I order you: stop the repression!”
The next day a gunman shot him as he said blank 7 in a hospital chapel. He died minutes later.
From priest to saint
Write what happened in each year.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1942 | Write your answer |
| 1970 | Write your answer |
| 1977 | Write your answer |
| 1979 | Write your answer |
| 1980 | Write your answer |
| 1990 | Write your answer |
| 2015 | Write your answer |
| 2018 | Write your answer |
Apply it
A student says, “Romero was killed for politics, so he is not really a martyr.” Which reply best matches the Church's judgment? Circle one.
- A Martyrs must die refusing to deny a doctrine
- B His politics were correct, so it still counts
- C He was killed for living the Gospel among the poor
- D The approved miracle is what made him a martyr
Why is that the right answer?
Apply it
Romero read the names of the killed and the disappeared on air. Which action today is closest in spirit? Circle one.
- A Carefully documenting real harm so victims are not erased
- B Reposting an unverified accusation to raise awareness
- C Staying neutral online so that no one feels offended
- D Calling out a wrongdoer with insults to shame them
Why is that the right answer?
Take a side
Romero's sainthood cause moved slowly because some people said he was political. Resolved: when a Church leader publicly names specific injustices and tells soldiers to stop, he has stepped out of religion and into politics.
My side: ☐ Agree ☐ Disagree
- He wrote to a foreign president about weapons and addressed an army directly.
- He spoke “in the name of God” and never took up weapons or sought power.
- The Church declared he was killed for living the Gospel, not for a party.
- Would silence in the face of killing have been neutral, or a choice of its own?
- Where is the line between a pastor defending lives and a pastor backing a faction?
My strongest reason, with evidence from the slides:
The best argument for the other side, and my response:
God's microphone
Romero said, “Each one of you has to be God’s microphone.” His radio homilies were the most listened-to program in El Salvador. You carry a broadcast tool in your pocket. What does your feed amplify, and who would be heard if you used it the way he used the radio?
Think: my idea before we talk
Sentence starters: “Right now my posts mostly amplify ...”“A voice that goes unheard in my community is ...”“The cost of speaking up online would be ...”
Pair: something my partner said
Let us pray
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
Matthew 5:9
Lord, you hear the cry of the poor.
Give us Romero's courage to tell the truth and his love for those who suffer.
Teach us to aspire not to have more, but to be more.
St. Óscar Romero, pray for us.
Amen.
My own prayer or intention:
Well done
Romero said, “If they kill me, I shall rise again in the Salvadoran people.” A civil war followed his death, but the people never forgot their archbishop. His feast is March 24.
One thing I learned today:
One question I still have:
How could the example of St. Óscar Romero shape the way I live, online and offline?
Challenge: Be God's microphone once this week: use your real voice or your account to tell the truth on behalf of someone who is being ignored, and check your facts first.