Saint Oscar Romero: a Godly Play script
Texted adapted by Jasper Kessler from Ministory. Oscar Romero’s feast day is March 24.
El Salvador in the 1970’s was a country deeply divided. Most Salvadorans lived in extreme poverty, while a small number of rich families controlled most of the wealth and political power. Violence was regularly used against those who stood up to challenge this inequality. This was the situation when Oscar Romero became the Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador in 1977.
Originally he was seen as a safe pair of hands, someone who would not rock the boat. Though he had grown up in the poverty and inequality of El Salvador, he believed that the role of the church was to be concerned with things Heavenly, rather than things on earth.
But a bishop is called to listen to their people, and as archbishop, he would regularly hear first hand accounts of the regular working people who would be threatened or disappeared without a trace.
Romero said “the Word of God is like the light of the Sun. It illuminates beautiful things but also things which we would rather not see”
See full script and images in the PDF version.