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October 15, 2018

Pope Francis Canonizes Murdered Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero
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At the Vatican, Pope Francis has named Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar
Romero a saint, 38 years after he was murdered by a right-wing death
squad at the beginning of the brutal U.S.-backed campaign in El
Salvador. Only weeks before his assassination, Romero wrote a letter to
President Jimmy Carter, calling on him not to provide military aid to
the right-wing Salvadoran military government. In the archbishop's final
and now-famous sermon, he made a direct appeal to Salvadoran soldiers to
lay down their weapons.

Archbishop Óscar Romero: "In his name and in the name of our tormented
people who have suffered so much and whose laments cry out to heaven, I
implore you, I beg you, I order you: Stop the repression!"

The next day, Romero was fatally shot from a car at the church where he
was giving mass. We'll have more on Óscar Romero's canonization later in
the broadcast.


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