On the 98th anniversary of Blessed Oscar Romero's birth - 15 August 2015 - hundreds of people from across Britain gathered in St George's Cathedral, Southwark, for the National Mass of Thanksgiving celebrating the life, martyrdom and beatification of the Archbishop of San Salvador.
The Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor with three bishops and 14 other priests. The Cardinal wore the red chasuble brought back from the Beatification in San Salvador, which had been specially designed for that occasion.
During his homily, Bishop John Rawsthorne, the Bishop Emeritus of Hallam who represented the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales at Romero's beatification, inspired and challenged us to keep alive his legacy:
'In Blessed Oscar Romero we see the hand of God, the work of God; a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Romero's way was that of listening and listening and listening, and then praying and praying and praying about what was happening, and only then leading to action. He is an inspirational figure of our time who points the way for us. Ours is still a world of civil war, of asylum seekers and refugees and of food banks in our own countries.’
After Mass, the congregation gathered to hear from Bishop John, Clare Dixon and Julian Filochowski of the Romero Trust who were all privileged to attend the beatification. There is now great hope that the canonisation of Blessed Oscar Romero will be completed in time for the centenary of his birth in August 2017.
Further photographs are available to view here
