Canonization of Oscar Romero might not lead to peace but...

Tim Padgett argues for Saving El Salvador: Why The Vatican Needs To Make Archbishop Romero A Saint.

But this week Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, finally pledged a fast-track beatification for Romero. Let’s hope his canonization comes just as quickly, because Romero’s sainthood is a spiritual and social tonic that El Salvador and Central America desperately need.

It could, in fact, help the region pull out of its homicidal tailspin.

I'm all for canonizing Oscar Romero. He is truly a man of faith who was murdered for professing the Catholic faith. His outspoken support for the poor and the oppressed led directly to his murder.

I hope progress on recognizing Romero a saint will help reduce the violence in El Salvador, but I don't think that there's any reasons to link the two. I also wonder whether it might make things worse. In Guatemala, there was some support for improving the justice system and recognizing the crimes of the past over the last few years. That all stopped when it came to prosecuting those who ordered the scorched earth program of the 1980s.

Similar things have happened in El Salvador. President Mauricio Funes and the last FMLN government apologized on behalf of the state for a number of civil war era crimes. They recently set aside some money for victims of the war. However, there has been push back against efforts by the Spanish judiciary to prosecute those responsible for the murders of the UCA Jesuits and staff - a constitutional crisis. The military would not cooperate with efforts to release records on the disappeared youth - instead, Pro-Busqueda was attacked. And the military will not stop honoring those accused of massive human rights violations.

Recognizing Romero as a saint won't go over too well with those who see him as a communist and as a person who was leading the country down the path of revolution. The Nicaraguan Church's support for the removal of Somoza was important to convincing many Catholics to give the broad-based but Sandinista-led insurgency an opportunity. Romero wasn't at the point of throwing the Catholic Church's support behind the guerrillas (he had just supported the October 15 coup) but there was fear that he would eventually. That was unacceptable.