Saint Oscar Romero’s Legacy and the Call to Nonviolence in the Jubilee Year

On March 24, we commemorate the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Saint Oscar Romero, a beacon of hope and nonviolent resistance during El Salvador’s brutal civil war. His unwavering faith in the dignity of the marginalized and his fearless advocacy for justice continue to inspire us today.

In this article for Exaudi, Bishop Kevin Dowling, CSsR, Member of the Advisory Council of the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence and former Co-President of Pax Christi International, reflects on Romero’s legacy and the call for Gospel nonviolence in the Jubilee Year.

In this Jubilee Year 2025, Pope Francis has called for us to become Pilgrims of Hope. March 24 is the 45th anniversary of the assassination in El Salvador of Saint Oscar Romero, whose life and witness consistently gave testimony to the possibility of hope in the context of a brutal civil war.  Romero believed that marginalized peoples were the place of God’s revelation in history – that they provided an opening where the God of hope and possibility could be discovered in the midst of violence and tremendous suffering. Archbishop Romero proclaimed the Word of God in such a way that it gave hope to impoverished people, announcing life and its fullness to the ones from whom he had drawn inspiration, and denouncing the poverty and repression that brought death to so many of his beloved people. The 2025 Jubilee is an invitation to plant similar seeds of Gospel nonviolence throughout the Church, a call to the nonviolent work of identifying and organizing hope.