The Rev. Robert Sirico, in The Detroit News today, remembers the faith of slain Archbishop Oscar Romero, whom Pope Francis recently declared a martyr. Rev. Sirico recalls his trip to the church where the Salvadoran archbishop was killed.

While on a lecture tour of El Salvador about a year ago, I asked my hosts if it were possible to visit the church where Oscar Romero celebrated his last Mass in 1980.

The Salvadorian archbishop was assassinated by a government hit squad at the point in the Mass known as the Offertory.

Here, the priest slightly raises first the host and then the chalice in a re-enactment of Christ’s institution of the Eucharist, which Catholics believe to be the self-offering of Christ for the salvation of the world.

Sirico calls Romero “a man of deep prayer and spirituality” whose life had been co-opted by liberation theologians.

Read, “Sirico: An archbishop driven by faith, not ideology” at The Detroit Free Press.