Archbishop Oscar Romero honoured in London Cathedral

London, 19 September 2013: The assassinated Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, is honoured in London’s Southwark Cathedral on Thursday, September 19th, as a new four metre high Salvadoran Cross and reliquary are dedicated to his name.

Commissioned by the Archbishop Romero Trust especially for St George’s Cathedral, the Cross contains a fragment of the alb that Romero was wearing on the day of his assassination. It stands alongside a bust of the Salvadoran archbishop, who was gunned down while celebrating Mass on 24 March 1980.

On Thursday, at an ecumenical service presided over by Archbishop Peter Smith, Archbishop Romero’s life and legacy was recalled.

Julian Filochowski, chair of the Archbishop Romero Trust and former director of the Catholic aid and development agency CAFOD, while speaking to Vatican Radio’s Philippa Hitchen said about the importance of the Romero memorial and his hopes for a speedy beatification of the martyred Salvadoran archbishop.

He said: "The Romero Trust had been given a precious fragment of the bloodstained alb of Archbishop Romero that he was wearing at the time of his assassination......really in thanksgiving from the Church in San Salvador for the work we'd done over many years in renovating Romero's little house and conserving his belongings, in particular the clothing he was wearing at the time of his killing....so we wanted it to be in a place where people could come, a focus for prayer and for those concerned with justice, with an option for the poor in the lines of Archbishop Romero.

It's to honour Archbishop Romero who is on the road to sainthood, but it's also dedicated to the memory of Bishop Michael Evans who was a great Romero 'fan', he had Romero as a model for his episcopal ministry in the diocese of East Anglia and he was the first to make a donation towards the commissioning of the Cross....

The thing with Romero was that he not only expressed and spoke his faith but he lived the faith....his commitment to the poor took him to his death....and here in St George's Cathedral, we'll hopefully have this Romero space which will become a focus for prayer and other services when Romero's cause if finally recognised...Source: VR Eng