London: Archbishop Romero service

Singers at the Romero service

Pan pipe music from Bolivia filled St Martin in the Fields Church at Trafalgar Square and brought a flavour of Latin America to the opening of Saturday's annual Romero service in London. The ecumenical service marked the 36th anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero and took the theme: 'The violence of peacemaking - Archbishop Romero and the Search for Peace'.

Julian Filochowski, Chair of the Archbishop Romero Trust, welcomed the congregation to the service by recalling the beatification of Romero in San Salvador on 23 May 2015, particularly the rare solar rainbow that circled the sun during much of the ceremony. He suggested it gave a cosmological dimension to the beatification. The rainbow around the sun had appeared once Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, had finished reading the official decree proclaiming Oscar Romero as a martyr and a blessed. Romero oversaw the diocese of San Salvador from 1977 until 24 March 1980, when he was shot and killed while saying Mass, after challenging the violence in his country.

The keynote speaker was Fr Francisco de Roux SJ, who said he has long been "touched and inspired by the witness to peace of Oscar Romero". Since the 1980s Fr de Roux has been a leading voice in the efforts to seek a negotiated settlement to Colombia's decades-long armed conflict, and he thanked CAFOD and Christian Aid for their support. He has received numerous awards recognising his contribution to human rights and peace-building: among them the French Légion d'Honneur and Colombia's National Peace Prize.

In his talk he reflected that in working with communities surrounded by violent groups, "we discovered that there is no safety in weapons, and that the only true and sustainable protection comes through trusting people". He hopes that plans for a peace agreement between the State and the FARC guerrillas will bring peace, ending 50 years of violent conflict. "Urban and especially rural communities are desperate and exhausted by the war" he said. He deplored the 'cult of violence' in Colombia and the threats he and fellow Jesuit Javier Jiraldo face in their peacebuilding work, and suggested that, "today Romero is asking you, in the name of Jesus, to continue your support for ordinary people, Christians and non-Christians alike, women and men who keep on believing in a fertile, non-violent struggle for peace."

Revd Richard Carter of St Martin in the Fields pointed out that serious peacemaking can be violent, as evidenced by the famous peacemakers such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Romero who all died violently. He praised Fr Pacho for his peacemaking work with ordinary people and suggested, "we too must be seeds of peace wherever we are". Readers at the service included Bishop John Rawsthorne, Emeritus of Hallam and Clare Dixon of CAFOD (both trustees of the Archbishop Romero Trust), Christine Allen of Christian Aid, Pat Gaffney of Pax Christi and Fr Joe Ryan, Chair of Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Commission.

The musicians led songs on the theme of peace, including 'Bearers of Peace' by Bernadette Farrell, and the Romero Song. A collection was taken at the end for the work of the Archbishop Romero Trust.

Other services to mark the anniversary of Blessed Romero's martyrdom were held in Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh.

For more information see: www.romerotrust.org.uk/

Hear the Romero Song at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=21CN815v2G0

See also: ICN 20 March 2016- Text: Fr Francisco de Roux SJ at London Romero Service www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=29683