St. Óscar Romero, in full Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador who served as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. He spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations, and torture amid a growing war between left-wing and right-wing forces. Profound Oscar A. Romero quotes will challenge the way you think, and make your life worth living.
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Most Famous Oscar A. Romero Quotes
We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us. The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence of love, of brotherhood,the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for work. – Oscar A. Romero
Each one of you has to be God’s microphone. Each one of you has to be a messenger, a prophet. The church will always exist as long as there is someone who has been baptized…Where is your baptism? You are baptized in your professions, in the fields of workers, in the market. Wherever there is someone who has been baptized, that is where the church is. There is a prophet there. Let us not hide the talent that God gave us on the day of our baptism and let us truly live the beauty and responsibility of being a prophetic people. – Oscar A. Romero
The ones who have a voice must speak for those who are voiceless. – Oscar A. Romero
Aspire not to have more, but to be more. – Oscar A. Romero
If God accepts the sacrifice of my life, may my death be for the freedom of my people. A bishop will die, but the Church of God, which is the people, will never perish. I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will rise again in the people of El Salvador. – Oscar A. Romero
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. – Oscar A. Romero
Individuals often become heroes because of the extraordinary courage they demonstrate. An unyielding determination to do what is right, true, and just became a guiding principle for Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero. He demanded peace, a peace that could only be found in human rights and assurances of basic dignities. He informed the world about all the people who had been tortured, slaughtered, and of those who haddisappearedin his country, El Salvador. He told the truth, but like many great leaders who have fought for truth, Romero was assassinated. A single bullet transformed him into a martyr. His life was taken, but his voice could not be silenced. Romero became a beacon of hope in a country ravaged by poverty, injustice, and sorrow. As with many Central American countries, El Salvador was a national security state, a country where the military is accountable to no one and the people are defenseless against tyranny and oppression. There was no peace. In the face of this injustice, Romero took it upon himself to use the Church as a light of hope and to challenge the oppressors. – Oscar A. Romero
Beautiful is the moment in which we understand that we are no more than an instrument of God; we live only as long as God wants us to live; we can only do as much as God makes us able to do; we are only as intelligent as God would have us be. – Oscar A. Romero
A church that suffers no persecution but enjoys the privileges and support of the things of the earth – beware! – is not the true church of Jesus Christ. A preaching that does not point out sin is not the preaching of the gospel. A preaching that makes sinners feel good, so that they are secured in their sinful state, betrays the gospel’s call. – Oscar A. Romero
Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty. – Oscar A. Romero
I don’t want to be an anti, against anybody. I simply want to be the builder of a great affirmation: the affirmation of God, who loves us and who wants to save us. – Oscar A. Romero
Let us not tire of preaching love; it is the force that will overcome the world. Let us not tire of preaching love. Though we see that waves of violence succeed in drowning the fire of Christian love, love must win out; it is the only thing that can. – Oscar A. Romero
Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, ‘Thou shalt not kill’. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders. The church cannot remain silent before such an abomination. …In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: stop the repression. – Oscar A. Romero
By contrast, whoever out of love for God gives oneself to the service of others will live, like the grain of wheat that dies, but only apparently… Only in undoing itself does it produce the harvest. – Oscar A. Romero
If we are worth anything, it is not because we have more money or more talent, or more human qualities. Insofar as we are worth anything, it is because we are grafted onto Christ’s life, his cross and resurrection. That is a person’s measure. – Oscar A. Romero
The absolute desire of ‘having more’ encourages the selfishness that destroys communal bonds among the children of God. It does so because the idolatry of riches prevents the majority from sharing the goods that the Creator has made for all, and in the all-possessing minority it produces an exaggerated pleasure in these goods. – Oscar A. Romero
No confession brings perfection. – Oscar A. Romero
As a pastor, I am bound by a divine command to give my life for those whom I love, and that includes all Salvadorans, even those who are going to kill me. – Oscar A. Romero
Inspirational Oscar A. Romero Quotes
We lay foundations that will need further development. – Oscar A. Romero
Let us not forget: we are a pilgrim church, subject to misunderstanding, to persecution, but a church that walks serene, because it bears the force of love. – Oscar A. Romero
Our responsibility as Christians makes us tremble. – Oscar A. Romero
A Christian’s authenticity is show in difficult hours it is in difficult hours that the church grows in authenticity. Blest be God for this difficult hour in our archdiocese. Let us be worthy of it. – Oscar A. Romero
True liberty does violence to self and, like Christ, who disregarded that he was sovereign becomes a slave to serve others. – Oscar A. Romero
Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ, will live like the grains of wheat that dies. It only apparently dies. If it were not to die, it would remain a solitary grain. The harvest comes because of the grain that dies. We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us. – Oscar A. Romero
That is the hope that inspires Christians. We know that every effort to better society, especially when injustice and sin are so ingrained, is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that God demands of us. – Oscar A. Romero
You know that the air and water are being polluted, as is everything we touch and live with, and we go on corrupting the nature that we need. We don’t realize we have a commitment to God to take care of nature. To cut down a tree, to wastewater when there is so much lack of it, to let buses poison our atmosphere with those noxious fumes from their exhausts, to burn rubbish haphazardly-all that concerns our alliance with God. – Oscar A. Romero
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. – Oscar A. Romero
When we struggle for human rights, for freedom, for dignity, when we feel that it is a ministry of the church to concern itself for those who are hungry, for those who have no schools, for those who are deprived, we are not departing from God’s promise. He comes to free us from sin, and the church knows that sin’s consequences are all such injustices and abuses. The church knows it is saving the world when it undertakes to speak also of such things. – Oscar A. Romero
Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty. – Oscar A. Romero
The church would betray its own love for God and its fidelity to the gospel if it stopped being . . . a defender of the rights of the poor . . . a humanizer of every legitimate struggle to achieve a more just society . . . that prepares the way for the true reign of God in history. – Oscar A. Romero
We must overturn so many idols, the idol of self-first of all, so that we can be humble, and only from our humility can learn to be redeemers, can learn to work together in the way the world really needs. – Oscar A. Romero
No prayer fully expresses our faith. – Oscar A. Romero
One must not love oneself so much, as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life that history demands of us, and those that fend off danger will lose their lives. – Oscar A. Romero
When we leave Mass, we ought to go out the way Moses descended Mt Sinai: with his face shining, with his heart brave and strong to face the world’s difficulties. – Oscar A. Romero
It moves one’s heart to think: Nine months before I was born there was a woman who loved me deeply. She did not know what I was going to be like, but she loved me because she carried me in her womb. – Oscar A. Romero
Liberation that raises a cry against others is no true liberation. Liberation that means revolutions of hate and violence and takes away lives of others or abases the dignity of others cannot be true liberty. – Oscar A. Romero
That we may give our body and our blood over to suffering and pain, like Christ – not for Self, but to give harvests of peace and justice to our People. – Oscar A. Romero
Social sin is the crystallization … of individuals’ sins into permanent structures that keeps sin in being and makes its force to be felt by the majority of people. – Oscar A. Romero
Ask and it shall be given you; Seek and ye shall find; Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth; And he that seeketh, Findeth; and to him that knocketh It shall be opened. Aspire not to have more, but to be more. – Oscar A. Romero
Let us be today’s Christians. Let us not take fright at the boldness of today’s church. With Christ’s light let us illuminate even the most hideous caverns of the human person: torture, jail, plunder, want, chronic illness. The oppressed must be saved, not with a revolutionary salvation, in mere human fashion, but with the holy revolution of the Son of Man, who dies on the cross to cleanse God’s image, which is soiled in today’s humanity, a humanity so enslaved, so selfish, so sinful. – Oscar A. Romero
Who knows if the one whose hands are bloodied with Father Grande’s murder, or the one who shot Father Navarro, if those who have killed, who have tortured, who have done so much evil, are listening to me? Listen, there in your criminal hideout, perhaps already repentant, you too are called to forgiveness. – Oscar A. Romero
Deep Oscar A. Romero Quotes
Peace is not the product of terror or fear. – Oscar A. Romero
The Bible has a very meaningful expression: The Spirit makes all things new. We are those who grow old, and we want everything done to our aged standards. The Spirit is never old; the Spirit is always young. – Oscar A. Romero
A church that doesn’t provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed — what gospel is that? – Oscar A. Romero
I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will rise again in the people of El Salvador. – Oscar A. Romero
When the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to and perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises. – Oscar A. Romero
You know that the air and water are being polluted, as is everything we touch and live with, and we go on corrupting the nature that we need. We don’t realize we have a commitment to God to take care of nature. To cut down a tree, to waste water when there is so much lack of it, to let buses poison our atmosphere with those noxious fumes from their exhausts, to burn rubbish haphazardly-all that concerns our alliance with God. – Oscar A. Romero
There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried – Oscar A. Romero
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. Let us not tire of preaching love; it is the force that will overcome the world. –– Oscar A. Romero
I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from the management of the country, repression. All this is what constitutes the primal cause, from which the rest flows naturally. – Oscar A. Romero
There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried. – Oscar A. Romero
We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. – Oscar A. Romero
We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs. We must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat, among the poor newsboys who will sleep covered with newspapers in doorways. – Oscar A. Romero
You can tell the people that if they succeed in killing me, that I forgive and bless those who do it. Hopefully, they will realize they are wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish. – Oscar A. Romero
When we speak for the poor, please note that we do not take sides with one social class. What we do is invite all social classes, rich and poor, without distinction, saying to everyone let us take seriously the cause of the poor as though it were our own. – Oscar A. Romero
There is no dichotomy between man and God’s image. Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages a human being, abuses God’s image. – Oscar A. Romero
Each time we look upon the poor, on the farmworkers who harvest the coffee, the sugarcane, or the cotton… remember, there is the face of Christ. – Oscar A. Romero
I am bound, as a pastor, by divine command to give my life for those whom I love, and that is all Salvadoreans, even those who are going to kill me. – Oscar A. Romero
God is not satisfied with appearance. God wants the garment of justice. God wants his Christians dressed in love. – Oscar A. Romero
Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the epithets they put on us, we know we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down. – Oscar A. Romero
If some day they take the radio station away from us, if they close down our newspaper, if they don’t let us speak, if they kill all the priests and the bishop too, and you are left, a people without priests, each one of you must be God’s microphone, each one of you must be a messenger, a prophet. The church will always exist as long as there is one baptized person. And that one baptized person who is left in the world is responsible before the world for holding aloft the banner of the Lord’s truth and of his divine justice. – Oscar A. Romero
We are prophets of a future not our own. – Oscar A. Romero
We suffer with those who have disappeared, those who have had to flee their homes, and those who have been tortured. – Oscar A. Romero
This is what we are about: We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. – Oscar A. Romero
The transcendence that the church preaches is not alienation; it is not going to heaven to think about eternal life and forget about the problems on earth. It’s a transcendence from the human heart. It is entering into the reality of a child, of the poor, of those wearing rags, of the sick, of a hovel, of a shack. It is going to share with them. And from the very heart of misery, of this situation, to transcend it, to elevate it, to promote it, and to say to them, You aren’t trash. You aren’t marginalized. It is to say exactly the opposite, You are valuable. – Oscar A. Romero
If God accepts the sacrifice of my life, may my death be for the freedom of my people. A bishop will die, but the Church of God, which is the people, will never perish. I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will rise again in the people of El Salvador. – Oscar A. Romero
There are not two categories of people. There are not some who were born to have everything and leave others with nothing and a majority that has nothing and can’t enjoy the happiness that God has created for all. God wants a Christian society, one in which we share the good things that God has given for all of us. – Oscar A. Romero
Here there is a challenge from Christ to the goodness of humankind. It is not enough to be good. It is not enough to not do evil. My Christianity is something more positive; it is not a negative. There are many who say, But I don’t kill, I don’t steal, I don’t do anything bad to anyone. That’s not enough. You are still lacking a great deal. It is not enough to be good. – Oscar A. Romero
