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Document Details :

Title: Oscar Romero, Patron Saint of Church Asylum
Author(s): GUARDADO, Leo
Journal: Louvain Studies
Volume: 45    Issue: 2   Date: 2022   
Pages: 177-193
DOI: 10.2143/LS.45.2.3291402

Abstract :
In this Romero Lecture, the author analyzes how and why we can consider Oscar Romero the patron saint of church asylum by focusing on his responses to the occupations of the cathedral in San Salvador in the mid-to-late 1970s. Can cathedrals and churches legitimately serve as sites of refuge from and denunciation of state violence, including the violence of deportation? It is argued that despite Romero’s verbal opposition to the occupation of the cathedral in San Salvador, the phenomenon was key for his ecclesiological reflections on the church’s responsibility to accompany and protect the poor and persecuted as they exercised their own agency and dignity. In our day, as migrants and forcibly displaced persons continue to arrive in other countries seeking forms of asylum, it is imperative to remember that churches have historically served as places of refuge, and that church asylum or sanctuary is a pillar of ecclesial existence.

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