Romero, Saint Óscar (Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez), 1917–80, Salvadoran bishop and human rights advocate. He studied at the Gregorian Univ. in Rome and was ordained in 1942. Returning to El Salvador, Romero served as a parish priest and was editor of the archdiocesan newspaper. He became secretary of El Salvador's bishops conference (1966), auxiliary bishop of San Salvador (1970), bishop of Santiago de María (1974), and archbishop of San Salvador (1977). An outspoken critic of violence and repression, Romero used his radio broadcasts to call for an end to the social and economic repression of the poor and for an end to the Salvadoran death squads. In 1980, Romero was assassinated while saying Mass; no one was ever prosecuted for the crime. In 2015 Pope Francis formally declared Romero a martyr; he was canonized by Francis in 2018.
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