He told his audience that last year he was present at an audience with Pope Francis and the Salvadoran delegation who had come to Rome to thank Pope Francis for the Beatification of Archbishop Romero. He told the Pope that he was the author of two books about Rutilio Grande and President of the advisory commission for the cause of his canonisation.  Pope Francis asked if a miracle linked to Rutilio had been recorded. Fr. Rodolfo said no. Pope Francis smiled and said ”Rutilio Grande’s great miracle is Archbishop Romero.”

Fr Rodolfo told us that the two men’s life experiences were linked in so many ways. Rutilio’s ministry was brought to a violent end in March 1977, just as Archbishop Romero was beginning his in San Salvador. They were both from poor rural families in El Salvador. Romero was born in the east of the country in 1917 Rotilio was born in the central area called El Paisnal in 1928. They both entered the seminary at a very young age. Rutilio in San Salvador and Romero in the diocese of San Miguel. Rotilio joined the Jesuits in 1945.

As Fr Rodolfo continued I was struck by how both Rutilio and Romero were constantly aware and proud of their humble roots, with compassion for the poor and all the problems that poverty brings. 

Rutilio was very involved in the training of seminarians. He wanted them to be responsible and mature, aware of the rights of the people and at the service of the people. He worked hard to make the Salvadoran Church accept the teaching of Vatican II and the Latin American application of it. 

His faithfulness to that teaching brought him into conflict with various bishops and he left his ministry in the seminary. He spent the last four years of his life dedicated to proclaiming the gospel and the justice of the Kingdom of God to the campesinos (peasant country-folk)

Rutilio and Romero both announced the Kingdom of God and tried to establish effective signs of its presence in a reality dominated by economic exploitation, social oppression and state repression. They denounced the injustice that oppressed people and proclaimed the people’s invitation to liberation. Both pleaded with those involved in injustice and violence to be converted. Neither incited violence. They fought against the repressive violence which kills quickly in order to silence the calls for justice and against the structural violence which kills more slowly through unemployment, hunger and sickness.

The poor received their words with interest and joy because they gave them hope, but the powerful accused them of being communists and in the end resorted to murder to silence their voices. They were both assassinated at the instigation of the oligarchy. The physical authors of the killings were death squads under army command. Their murders could not silence the truth of their words nor the force of their credibility.

Both worked to build a Church that was truly a People of God. The first step was to bring the people together because without people there is no People of God. The Church had to be built from the grassroots, a Church rooted in living communities.

Since the lecture, I have thought of the impact of both Rutilio and Romero in their lifetime and beyond. Their lives and ministries challenge us to get involved in transformation both personal and communal. How do we announce the Kingdom of God and denounce what oppresses others?

An authentic faith always implies a deep desire to change the world
Pope Francis, Homily 2014