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Archbishop Romero Pilgrimage in Portsmouth Diocese

  • Maureen Thompson

In Commemoration of Blessed Archbishop Romero in the centenary year of his birth we planned a pilgrim day in the south-eastern corner of Portsmouth Diocese on 9 September. We took as our theme the Beatitudes and wove into our prayer stops stories from Romero’s Life from Maria Lopez Vigil book Monsenor Romero: Memories in Mosaic and the prayer in memory of the Archbishop A future not our Own.
We were sent out the previous Sunday by our parish priest, Fr Leslie Adams in the hope that our efforts and prayers would be of benefit to the communities we passed and strengthen us in the Christian way of life renewing our determination to devote ourselves to works of charity and justice. To this end at each stop we also had a suggested “action for the future” in support of CAFOD, Caritas or Justice initiatives.

Seventeen of the most enthusiastic walkers started out in Emsworth, taking up our own replicator Romero cross, painted specially for the day and opened our reflections with this prayer for the day:

Heavenly Father
We ask for your blessing on this journey
Let it strengthen us recognising our poverty of spirit, our grief, our humility, our desire to do good and our need for your mercy.
Let it encourage us to be your disciples acting as comforters, advocates for righteousness, offering reconciliation and peace.
Give us wisdom to speak out for your names sake even when we are ridiculed and persecuted
May the courage of Oscar Romero inspire us to work with integrity for an end to violence and poverty. Amen

Blessed are the poor in spirit

More pilgrims joined us a various stop along the way. At St Joseph’s in Havant we heard the story of Romero as a little boy in a small village in El Salvador and his bishop’s prophecy that he would one day too be a bishop. We prayed for vocations and for the success of CAFOD’s “Power to Be” campaign which focuses on some of today’s poorest children having the resources they need to fulfil their potential. Our action was to sign up to the campaign.

Blessed are those who mourn

Next, we were welcomed at a local Anglican Church where we heard the memory of Fr Romero’s mother’s funeral and how he had walked with the humble people of the town rather than local dignitaries. We prayed for all people struggling with grief, particularly those who had lost love ones due to war and persecution. Our action was a prayer and a candle in memory of someone and a donation to CAFOD and local Christians who have escaped persecution from other parts of the world.

Blessed are the meek

On the next stage the hard work began over the motorway along the side of the water and crossing the main roads onto Portsea Island. We stopped under the Portsmouth sign to hear the story of how Bishop Romero persuaded Rogelio Pedraz to stay and help him with the radio station by offering to beg on his knees if necessary. The radio was a vital part of Romero’s ministry as Archbishop in a country where all dissent was violently eliminated and CAFOD helped support the radio station. We prayed that we too would be messengers for God with courage to speak up and that we would grow in appreciation of all God’s creation, living more simply and lightly upon the earth
Action: Act on principles of CAFOD’s live Simply Award - consume less, recycle and reuse more.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Justice

This prayer stop was matched by our physical hunger and thirst as we stopped to enjoy our lunch together. We learned here about Fr Rutilio Grande and his powerful preaching of the Gospel that cost him his life. Fr Grande was the Archbishop’s friend and his tragic martyrdom marked a turning point for the newly appointed Archbishop of El Salvador. Our prayers and action were for persecuted Christians today and we shared five stories of Christians suffering for their faith today in Mexico, Colombia and China. Everyone was asked to write a letter of support if they could.

Blessed are the Merciful

This next part of our journey took us for a short stint on to part of the old pilgrim’s way from Winchester to Rome – always a good link to reflect on the many feet and hearts that have gone before us, towards our merciful Father. Here we learnt about Romero’s courage and non-judgmental approach to the funeral of Fr Neto Astor Ruiz. Even though he had died with rebels the Archbishop led the other priests to his funeral. We prayed for mercy for ourselves and redemption for people who have taken wrong paths. Our action for Caritas was to consider training to be a visitor in hospital, prisons or in the community.

Blessed are the pure of heart

Here we learnt about Romero’s call to journalists to write the truth even if it might be more profitable not too. We prayed for our own purity or heart that we would always be people of good conscience and encouraged to open own our lives to the vulnerable and lonely in our own communities.

Blessed are the peacemakers and those persecuted for doing right.

Our final two prayer stations took place inside Portsmouth Cathedral. As we arrived at the church door we were welcomed by a friendly team of people we knew who, although felt they could not walk, wanted to join us for our final prayers and also for delicious cakes and warm cups of tea. We entered the Cathedral and read about the Archbishops Romero’s friendship with his local Baptist community, an opportunity for us to welcome several “sisters” who had joined us from the Anglican communion for our walk. At the front of the Church we reflected on the Archbishop’s assassination. Everyone was given an “Aspire to be more” card from CAFOD to write their own messages for the day. There were some final words from Romero to inspire us:

“Each one of you has to be God’s microphone. Each one of you has to be a messenger, a prophet. The church will always exist as long as there is someone who has been baptized…Where is your baptism? You are baptized in your professions, in the fields of workers, in the market. Wherever there is someone who has been baptized, that is where the church is. There is a prophet there. Let us not hide the talent that God gave us on the day of our baptism and let us truly live the beauty and responsibility of being a prophetic people.”

Just before the cakes Fr Dominic Golding joined us with his own thoughts on Romero and a much-appreciated final blessing. Thank you to all who participated and helped.

We are hoping that with our 37 pilgrims many more people from Portsmouth Diocese will join us again at the Cathedral on the 18 November to enjoy Rise Theatres play Romero: Heartbeat of El Salvador. Tickets are for sale at the Cathedral Discovery Centre or contact caritas@protsmouthdiocese.org.uk

Maureen Thompson is part of the Justice, Peace and Social Responsibility Team of Portsmouth Diocese.


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