Assumpta - British Province of Carmelite Friars

Assumpta March 2010
ROMERO
A martyr with a Carmelite heart
Monsignor Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San
Salvador, was martyred on 24th March 1980 for
his prophetic defence of God’s ‘little ones’. Oscar
Romero – whose cause for beatification is being considered
by the Holy See – was inspired by Carmelite
spirituality, and he in turn has become an inspiration
for many Carmelites around the world today.
Below we print some extracts from a reflection
entitled “Seasons of the Heart” written by one of the
Priors Provincial in North America, Fr. John Welch,
O.Carm. Seasons of the Heart has become widely
read as a contemporary exposition of Carmelite
spirituality. At several points in his text, Fr. John
uses Oscar Romero as an example of how Carmelite spirituality can
be lived out today...
Romero’s Duty
What do the men and women in our Carmelite parishes, our retreat houses,
in counselling want Everything! Count on it, and minister to it. And we say
to ourselves and them, that the hunger within us is so deep and powerful
that, acknowledged or not, only God is sufficient food. When Jesus preached
the present and coming Reign of God he was speaking precisely to the deep
desires, the holy longing in the hearts of his listeners.
Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed while celebrating Eucharist in
a Carmelite chapel. Romero’s conversion from a rather traditional, professional
cleric with a sincere but otherworldly piety, to an outspoken courageous
shepherd of his people, came because he saw the longing in the faces
of his people. As he celebrated the funerals of those killed by the powerful,
and read off the names of the disappeared, he found it was his duty more
and more to give voice to these voiceless ones, to express their oppressed
longings - to embody in his courageous presence the holy longing of the
Salvadoran people. To assist people in hearing and voicing their deepest
longing is part of Carmel’s continuing ministry. The first Carmelites estab-
Page 10