I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from the management of the country, repression. All this is what constitutes the primal cause, from which the rest flows naturally.
Oscar RomeroTrue liberty does violence to self and, like Christ, who disregarded that he was sovereign becomes a slave to serve others.
Oscar RomeroA church that doesn't provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyoneโs skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimedโโโโwhat gospel is that?
Oscar RomeroYou can tell the people that if they succeed in killing me, that I forgive and bless those who do it. Hopefully, they will realize they are wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish.
Oscar RomeroIf some day they take the radio station away from us, if they close down our newspaper, if they donโt let us speak, if they kill all the priests and the bishop too, and you are left, a people without priests, each one of you must be Godโs microphone, each one of you must be a messenger, a prophet. The church will always exist as long as there is one baptized person. And that one baptized person who is left in the world is responsible before the world for holding aloft the banner of the Lordโs truth and of his divine justice.
Oscar RomeroYou know that the air and water are being polluted, as is everything we touch and live with, and we go on corrupting the nature that we need. We don't realize we have a commitment to God to take care of nature. To cut down a tree, to waste water when there is so much lack of it, to let buses poison our atmosphere with those noxious fumes from their exhausts, to burn rubbish haphazardly-all that concerns our alliance with God.
Oscar Romero