Pope Francis bestows martyrdom on slain Salvadoran archbishop

A mural dedicated to the work of Archbishop Oscar Romero on a building in San Salvador. Image by Alison McKellar / CC BY 2.0

Oscar Romero, the politically outspoken San Salvador archbishop who was gunned down in the 1980s, has moved a step closer to sainthood after Pope Francis approved his long-campaigned-for martyrdom declaration. Romero spoke out against right-wing military repression at the beginning of El Salvador’s civil war in the early 1980s and was a well-known advocate for the poor. The martyrdom decree paves the way for Romero to be beatified, which is when the Catholic Church would officially proclaim him as blessed and worthy of public religious veneration, meaning his followers would be able to pray to him.

Read more: theguardian.com