Romero’s legacy weighs heavily in his country’s consciousness, said Professor Jocelyn Viterna, an expert in the Salvadoran civil war and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Sociology. Sainthood ensures that Romero’s example will live on, she said.“People would remember that he came to their villages, that he talked to them, that he shook hands, that he touched their children,” Viterna said. “But they also remembered that he saw the violence they were suffering and spoke out, when everyone else was pretending it didn’t exist, when the U.S. didn’t want to admit it was there, when the elites who were in power didn’t want to admit it was there. Romero named the violence. And that was critical not just for bringing more international attention to El Salvador but also for the dignity of people who were suffering.”Romero’s canonization, set for October, will mark a new stage of devotion, said Clooney.“If we want to see what the canonization of Romero really means, we have to look at five, 10 years from now not only in El Salvador and Central America but also around the Catholic Church,” said Clooney. “Does the example of Romero make Catholics elsewhere in the world change their lives? Does it tip the balance in the church on behalf of the poor?” The day before a gunman shot him in the heart as he celebrated Mass, Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero gave a powerful homily in which he urged soldiers to cease in the killing that was engulfing his country.“The peasants you kill are your own brothers and sisters,” Romero pleaded in a sermon at the Cathedral of San Salvador. “In the name of God, and in the name of this suffering people, whose laments rise to heaven each day more tumultuous, I beg you, I beseech you, I order you, in the name of God: Stop the repression.”The assassination, on March 24, 1980, intensified a civil war that would last 12 years. It also marked the beginning of Salvadorans’ veneration of Romero as a martyr and a saint.Last month, just before the 38th anniversary of Romero’s murder, Pope Francis gave his blessing to his canonization, making official the sentiments of Salvadorans. In the Central American country, Romero is called the “people’s saint” for standing with the poor.“What surprises me about Romero’s canonization is that it took so long and not that it’s happening now,” said June Erlick, who met Romero when she was working as an international correspondent in Central America in the late 1970s. “He gave his life in every sense, both in the pastoral and the political, for the people he was serving.”,Romero became archbishop in 1977, as the right-wing military government and left-wing political groups plunged into bloody confrontation. In sermons from the Cathedral’s pulpit, he spoke against injustice and human rights abuses by the military forces. In visits to small villages and slums, he listened more than he preached. Erlick, editor in chief of ReVista, a magazine published by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, accompanied Romero on one such visit.“What really impressed me was how much of a minister Romero was,” she said. “He wasn’t talking to these people about human rights abuses. He was there as a pastor, confirming young girls and boys, and mostly listening to what people had to say.”The decision to canonize Romero represents a political statement from the Catholic Church, which wavered for many years on his nomination for sainthood, said Francis X. Clooney, Parkman Professor of Divinity at the Divinity School.“When the pope makes him a saint, he’s saying that this is a model for Catholics everywhere in the world,” said Clooney. “Under previous popes, there were certain hesitations about Romero. But what Francis is saying is that the policies of the church should be on the side of those who are in need, and therefore the church should hold up, as an example for everyone, this man who gave his life for the sake of the poor.” “What Francis is saying is that the policies of the church should be on the side of those who are in need, and therefore the church should hold up, as an example for everyone, this man who gave his life for the sake of the poor.” — Francis X. Clooney, Parkman Professor of Divinity
Observer File Photo Notre Dame students, faculty and guests celebrate ND Day 2014 in the LaFortune Student Center. This year is the event’s second year.The campaign also includes voting for how a ‘Challenge Fund’ of $1 million will be distributed to hundreds of clubs, academic departments, teams, dorms and other “areas of interest” listed on the Notre Dame Day website.By donating $10 through the website or by phone or text, donors receive five votes, which they can direct to any of the listed entities. After the campaign ends, each organization will receive a piece of the Challenge Fund proportional to the number of votes it received.For example, Wall said if 10,000 donations are made, as he anticipates, an organization will win roughly $20 for each individual vote it receives, though the exact amount will vary based on how many donations come in.Wall said donors have to give $10 to be able to vote, and while they can give more if they choose, a gift of any size still garners only five votes, and each subsequent gift of $10 or more gets one additional vote. Wall said the purpose of these limits is to make sure everyone has the power to direct the Challenge Fund regardless of how much they are able to donate.“There are so many people that love Notre Dame, and all of them do not have the capacity to make those large gifts,” he said. “So through this million-dollar challenge fund, we’re putting a generational and income-level equity among all Notre Dame people, everyone in the community — faculty, staff, alums, people who just love the University.”As a result, some organizations stand to receive hundreds or thousands of dollars through the Challenge Fund voting. Wall said Knott Hall, for example, garnered eight percent of the vote for last year’s $250,000 Challenge Fund, allowing the hall to create a new weight room.While there are some limits on how the money can be used and each organization will not actually receive the money for another six weeks or so, Wall said participating organizations will generally be able to spend the money they raise as they see fit.“It’s meant to be on a large-scale mission of improvement,” Wall said. “[For example,] if Cavanaugh raised $10,000 through Notre Dame Day —[that’s] one percent of the vote — the idea isn’t to have pizza every night in Cavanaugh. That’s not what the money is used for. It should be to improve the long-term health of the residents, both physically and communally. It could mean that you take 20 girls to Costa Rica for a service project, but it also could mean new couches.”Several anonymous families donated the million dollars for the Challenge Fund in advance, Wall said. As is the case with normal financial gifts, donors who give $10 to participate in the voting can say where they want that money to be allocated: academics, financial aid, mission and service, student life, athletics, any other indicated organization or to “greatest need,” which Wall said can be used for any emergency expense but usually ends up in the financial aid fund.Students can also participate in a tug-of-war tournament Monday at 3 p.m., where dorms will compete for a $4,000 first prize, Wall said. Meanwhile, a social media lounge with food in the LaFortune Student Center will be available all day.Wall said planning for Notre Dame Day required custom-building a mechanism for taking and displaying Challenge Fund votes, working out how to distribute the funds and approve how they are used and explaining to clubs and other campus entities how the campaign works. A committee of senior University administrators guided the process.“It’s been really fun to work with a lot of the clubs who are really into this,” he said. “They go out, and they’re just promoting to anybody in their listservs and social media.”The goal, Wall said, is both to celebrate Notre Dame and to support it.“The Notre Dame family loves what Notre Dame students do in the classroom, on the athletic fields, in their clubs and in their residence halls,” he said. “This is the way that we can help all of these groups that want to raise money, raise money.”Tags: Aaron Wall, Challenge Fund, Notre Dame Day Starting Sunday, the University will hold its second annual Notre Dame Day, a 29-hour fundraising campaign that includes a live broadcast, a tug-of-war tournament, a social media lounge, the unveiling of The Shirt and the distribution of $1 million to more than 780 Notre Dame-affiliated organizations.The campaign will begin at 6:42 p.m. Sunday and end at midnight April 27. For the entire day, there will be a broadcast streaming on the Notre Dame Day website, featuring student organizations, current students, alumni, faculty and other notable figures such as ESPN’s Cris Collinsworth, former pro football player Brady Quinn and author Nicholas Sparks, who will talk about their experience with Notre Dame and encourage people to donate. The broadcast will also feature remote interviews and performances around campus, Notre Dame Day program director Aaron Wall said.
Photo © Tipp FM The second semi-final – between Cork’s Killavullen and Bruff of Limerick – has been postponed due to a bereavement. Thurles Sarsfields are through to the Munster Junior B hurling final.They were comfortable 2-10 to 4 point winners over Clare champions Tubber in this afternoons semi-final played in Limerick.Most of the scoring was in the opening half as Sars led 2-6 to 2 points at the interval.