Pope declares sacred bishop Romero killed by death squad

Pope Francis declares Sunday morning the Salvadoran archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero, who was murdered in 1980, holy.

Romero (1917-1980) was a socially committed advocate of human rights and archbishop of San Salvador. He was assassinated on March 24, 1980, while in the Salvadoran capital he was celebrating a mass. It is believed that right-wing death squads were responsible for the murder, which shocked the world.

The year in which Romero was killed counts as the first year of a dragging guerrilla war of far-left insurgents against Salvadoran government forces, which were supported by the United States. Romero is regarded in Latin America as a figurehead of a socially moved Roman Catholic church that clashed with conservatives and fanatical opponents of leftist ideologies.

The Italian Pope Paul VI (1963-1978) is also raised in the Holy See on Sunday.