Romero was assassinated in 1980 by a right-wing death squad after preaching against the government’s oppression and human rights violationswhat Catholics call “the preferential option for the poor.” To me, Romero is already a saint, and I am lucky enough to have made a pilgrimage to San Salvador to see the chapel where he was slain while celebrating Mass and to his nearby living quarters, where his blood-stained clothes remain.
Just outside the capital, along a dirt road, is another place of pilgrimage, one for four other martyrs. It is where four North American churchwomen — Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and lay missioner Jean Donovan — were raped, killed and buried just months after the assassination of Romero.
While much has been made about the slow pace of Romero’s sainthood cause, especially after the fast-tracking of now-blessed John Paul II, there has been little outcry about the need to open sainthood causes for these women. A Maryknoll spokeswoman told me the order is not aware of anyone officially pursuing canonization of any of the four churchwomen.
And the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland have not opened a cause for Kazel, said Sister Susan Durkin, president of the order. “That doesn’t mean we won’t consider doing that moving forward, especially in light of the announcement about Archbishop Romero, which we are all certainly happy about and has been a long time coming,” she said.
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