Pope Francis on Sunday canonized two new Catholic saints, Pope Paul VI and slain Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, saying both men cared for the poor and fought for praiseworthy causes, according to The Associated Press. Some 70,000 people gathered in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City as Francis announced their canonization. Thousands of Salvadorans were in attendance to celebrate Romero, who was blocked from martyrdom under a right-wing Catholic church for years, according to the AP. Francis during his speech wore the rope belt that Romero wore when he was killed by right-wing death squads in 1980, the AP reported. ADVERTISEMENT Romero was the archbishop of San Salvador in the late 1970s, as right-wing violence against a left-wing uprising raged in El Salvador. Romero spoke out against the army until he was killed at the order of a right-wing politician and death squad leader. Francis lauded Romero for leaving "the security of the world, even his own safety" in order to be "close to the poor and to his people," American Magazine reported. Romero has long been considered a Latin American hero and saint-like figure. Previous popes refused to canonize him for fear of popularizing the left-wing ideology that he embodied, the AP reported. Paul was pope from 1963-1978 when the Catholic Church was undergoing disruptive reforms. Francis said he knew that "the love of money is the root of all evils." "Where money is at the center, there is no room for God or for man," the pope reportedly said. Paul popularized the ideology that Francis embodies today — an emphasis on salvation for the poor and marginalized. Francis during the ceremony, which was attended by multiple world leaders, used Paul’s staff and robe. “Jesus is radical," Francis said. "He gives all, and he asks all. He gives a total love and asks for an undivided heart.”<doc-sep>Banners of new saints hang from the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica before the the canonization Mass for seven new saints celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Oct. 14. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Carrying Pope Paul VI’s pastoral staff and wearing the blood-stained belt of Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, Pope Francis formally recognized them, and five others, as saints of the Catholic Church. Thousands of pilgrims from the new saints’ home countries — Italy, El Salvador, Spain and Germany — were joined by tens of thousands of others Oct. 14 in St. Peter’s Square to celebrate the universal recognition of the holiness of men and women they already knew were saints. Carolina Escamilla, who traveled from San Salvador for canonization, said she was “super happy” to be in Rome. “I don’t think there are words to describe all that we feel after such a long-awaited and long-desired moment like the ‘official’ canonization, because Archbishop Romero was already a saint when he was alive.” Each of the new saints lived lives marked by pain and criticism — including from within the church — but all of them dedicated themselves with passionate love to following Jesus and caring for the weak and the poor, Pope Francis said in his homily. The new saints are: Paul VI, who led the last sessions of the Second Vatican Council and its initial implementation; Romero, who defended the poor, called for justice and was assassinated in 1980; Vincenzo Romano, an Italian priest who died in 1831; Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa, a Spanish nun who ministered in Mexico and Bolivia and died in 1943; Catherine Kasper, the 19th-century German founder of a religious order; Francesco Spinelli, a 19th-century priest and founder of a religious order; and Nunzio Sulprizio, a layman who died in Naples in 1836 at the age of 19. “All these saints, in different contexts,” put the Gospel “into practice in their lives, without lukewarmness, without calculation, with the passion to risk everything and to leave it all behind,” Pope Francis said in his homily. The pope, who has spoken often about being personally inspired by both St. Paul VI and St. Oscar Romero, prayed that every Christian would follow the new saints’ examples by shunning an attachment to money, wealth and power, and instead following Jesus and sharing his love with others. And he prayed the new saints would inspire the whole church to set aside “structures that are no longer adequate for proclaiming the Gospel, those weights that slow down our mission, the strings that tie us to the world.” Among those in St. Peter’s Square for the Mass was Rossi Bonilla, a Salvadoran now living in Barcelona. “I’m really emotional, also because I did my Communion with Monsignor Romero when I was eight years old,” she told Catholic News Service. “He was so important for the neediest; he was really with the people and kept strong when the repression started,” Bonilla said. “The struggle continues for the people, and so here we are!” Claudia Lombardi, 24, came to the canonization from Brescia, Italy — St. Paul VI’s hometown. Her local saint, she said, “brought great fresh air” to the church with the Second Vatican Council and “has something to say to us today,” particularly with his 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae” on human life and married love, especially its teaching about “the conception of life, the protection of life always.” In his homily, Pope Francis said that “Jesus is radical.” “He gives all and he asks all; he gives a love that is total and asks for an undivided heart,” the pope said. “Even today he gives himself to us as the living bread; can we give him crumbs in exchange?” Jesus, he said, “is not content with a ‘percentage of love.’ We cannot love him 20 or 50 or 60 percent. It is either all or nothing” because “our heart is like a magnet — it lets itself be attracted by love, but it can cling to one master only and it must choose: either it will love God or it will love the world’s treasure; either it will live for love or it will live for itself.” “A leap forward in love,” he said, is what would enable individual Christians and the whole church to escape “complacency and self-indulgence.” Without passionate love, he said, “we find joy in some fleeting pleasure, we close ourselves off in useless gossip, we settle into the monotony of a Christian life without momentum where a little narcissism covers over the sadness of remaining unfulfilled.” The day’s Gospel reading recounted the story of the rich young man who said he followed all the commandments and precepts of Jewish law, but he asks Jesus what more he must do to have eternal life. “Jesus’ answer catches him off guard,” the pope said. “The Lord looks upon him and loves him. Jesus changes the perspective from commandments observed in order to obtain a reward, to a free and total love.” In effect, he said, Jesus is telling the young man that not doing evil is not enough, nor is it enough to give a little charity or say a few prayers. Following Jesus means giving him absolute first place in one’s life. “He asks you to leave behind what weighs down your heart, to empty yourself of goods in order to make room for him, the only good.” “Do we content ourselves with a few commandments or do we follow Jesus as lovers, really prepared to leave behind something for him?” the pope asked people gathered in St. Peter’s Square, including the 267 members of the Synod of Bishops and the 34 young people who are observers at the gathering. “A heart unburdened by possessions, that freely loves the Lord, always spreads joy, that joy for which there is so much need today,” Pope Francis said.<doc-sep>Esther Chavez vividly remembers the day in 1980 when a voice through a university loudspeaker delivered the news: San Salvador's Catholic Archbishop, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, had been fatally shot. “Everyone went crazy,” said Chavez, a New Jersey-based community activist who left El Salvador decades ago. “I didn’t go directly home to my family; I went to be with the nuns and when I got there they already had the news that he was killed.” The assassination of the popular Archbishop reverberated around the world, but it had a deep, personal impact on Salvadorans like Chavez. Now, almost forty years later, Chavez is one of many Salvadorans and Catholics who traveled to Rome to witness what they have long been waiting for — on Sunday, the late Romero was canonized by Pope Francis as a Catholic Saint. Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who will be canonized and declared a Catholic saint on Oct. 14, was gunned down while giving Mass in a San Salvador church on March 24, 1980. AP file Archbishop Romero was killed by a sniper from a right-wing death squad linked to the country's military government. It happened while he was conducting mass in the Chapel of the Hospital de la Divina Providencia. He was assassinated at the beginning of the country’s wrenching civil war, which killed an estimated 75,000 people. According to a U.N. Truth Commission Report, former National Guard Major Roberto D’Aubuisson, a leader within the far right in El Salvador, was behind the extrajudicial killing, but was never tried. Romero was targeted by right-wing forces who saw a threat in his constant entreaties against human rights abuses and his defense of poor and indigenous communities. For Salvadorans like Chavez, Romero’s emphasis on community and outreach had a lasting effect on her own personal trajectory. Chavez first began working with Romero around 1978 when she worked at a school in El Salvador and would type out transcripts of Romero’s homilies that would then be delivered to community members. It was there that she realized how important and influential his message was. Ana Romero, left, Blanca Molina, Esther Chavez and Margarita Molina will be traveling to Rome to attend the Oct. 14 canonization ceremony of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Reynaldo Leanos Jr. A few weeks later she sat in on a meeting with Archbishop Romero and others and had the opportunity to tell him about the work she was doing. “He said, ‘Oh, but I think you have a different type of job to do,’” Chavez said. Romero urged her to go back to her hometown and directly help its impoverished residents. “Most of the women who live in that area were taking care of other people’s children and leaving their own children alone, some of them were washing clothes and others were selling things in the market” said Chavez. “We made the decision, between my brother and I, that maybe we can do a daycare.” A t-shirt that will be worn by Esther Chavez and others at the canonization of the late Archbishop Oscar Romero in Rome on Oct. 14. Reynaldo Leanos Jr. After she left the chaos of her country's civil war, she continued her community work. In New Jersey, Chavez has worked with nonprofit organizations and has helped those Salvadorans who came to the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status as well as more recent immigrants. She attributes her lifelong career in advocacy to Archbishop Romero. Chavez's friend and fellow New Jersey resident Ana Romero is traveling with her to Rome. Unlike Chavez, she didn't personally know the late Archbishop, but she vividly remembers listening to one of his services on the radio. She believes his message that day may have been his death sentence. “He asked people in the Army to not listen to the generals because they were killing their brothers and sisters,” said Romero, who is not related to the late Archbishop. She also remembers that she almost attended the mass where Romero was killed. “I was eight months pregnant and my father didn’t let me go,” she said. Joaquín Chávez, associate professor of history at the University of Illinois at Chicago, explained why Romero, who started out with a more conservative world view, became more outspoken and was seen by the military government as a challenge. ”His weekly masses were basically followed by hundreds and thousands of people,” said Chávez, also a native of El Salvador. Romero’s church services were broadcasted across the country via radio. “He was someone who was able to articulate the fundamental grievances, demands and aspirations of the Salvadoran society," said Chávez, "human rights centered on things such as democracy, legal rights and peace.” Both Esther Chavez and Ana Romero said they carried the Archbishop's influence to the U.S. “I know I don’t live in El Salvador, but the injustice there and here is almost the same,” said Chavez. “Poor people in the United States are oppressed and discriminated against and that’s why as a Catholic I have the honor to know Romero and I continue to work for peace and justice.” Chavez said she's excited for her trip to Rome, but knows it’s going to be an emotional journey. “It’s like a new chapter in our lives,” said Chavez. “Hopefully we’re going to be able to have peace in El Salvador.” Archbishop's Romero’s induction into sainthood has been a long time coming, according to Ana Romero. “He’s not going to be a saint on that day,” Romero said. “He’s been a saint since the beginning, sent by God to El Salvador.” FOLLOW NBC LATINO ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM.<doc-sep>Pope Francis will canonize Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero, the Salvadoran champion of poor people who was assassinated as he said Mass in 1980, in a ceremony at the Vatican on Sunday. The archbishop was one of the most prominent church leaders in Latin America when he was killed at the age of 62. He condemned injustice and spoke out against political repression amid an intensifying war between leftist rebels and government and right-wing forces in El Salvador. Archbishop Romero had received several threats before a sniper fired a single shot, killing him on March 24, 1980. His funeral, which was attended by huge crowds, also came under attack by snipers. As many as 40 people were killed. The previous month, Archbishop Romero had angered government supporters by asking President Jimmy Carter to halt military aid to the country. (When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, he quickly increased such aid.) And in his Sunday sermons, Archbishop Romero insisted on nonviolence as he warned that El Salvador faced full-scale civil war without profound societal changes.<doc-sep>
ROME — Pope Francis canonized seven new saints Sunday, including Pope Paul VI, who concluded the Second Vatican Council, and Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated while celebrating Mass in 1980. Paul VI was pope from 1963 to 1978 and oversaw the close of the Second Vatican Council, which introduced sweeping changes in the church, including the introduction of the use of local languages in the liturgy and a rapprochement between Catholics and other religions, notably the Jews. The pope’s most controversial move during his turbulent, 15-year pontificate was the publication of the 1968 encyclical letter titled Humanae Vitae (“On Human Life”), which confirmed the church’s longstanding teaching regarding the immorality of the use of contraceptives to avoid pregnancy. Many inside and outside the church had expected Paul to overturn traditional teaching on contraception, along with the majority of the members of a special commission Paul had set up to study the question. Pope Francis chose the year 2018 — the fiftieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae — for the canonization of Paul VI. Francis has often voiced his personal regard for Paul VI and has held up Humanae Vitae as a critically important document for today’s world. In his 2016 letter, Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”), Francis cited Humanae Vitae four times, insisting that the teaching of Humanae Vitae “ought to be taken up anew in order to counter a mentality that is often hostile to life.” A crowd of some 70,000 pilgrims, visitors, and dignitaries overflowed Saint Peter’s Square onto the Via della Conciliazione for the outdoor ceremony Sunday that took place under sunny Roman skies. Among those attending the canonization Mass were Queen Sofia of Spain and the presidents of Italy, Chile, El Salvador, and Panama. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was also present. Pope Paul VI is venerated among Anglicans, having reopened ecumenical dialogue with the Anglican communion in 1966 through a historic meeting in the Vatican with the archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey. For his part, Archbishop Oscar Romero was a controversial figure for his outspoken criticism of the Salvadoran military government during the 1970s. Touted as a champion of the poor for his denunciation of oppression, critics considered him to have crossed the bounds between pastoral leadership and partisan politics. In his homily during Mass, Pope Francis said that Paul VI “spent his life for Christ’s Gospel, crossing new boundaries and becoming its witness in proclamation and in dialogue, a prophet of a Church turned outwards, looking to those far away and taking care of the poor.” Even in the midst of fatigue and misunderstanding, Francis said, “Paul VI bore witness in a passionate way to the beauty and the joy of following Christ totally.” “Today he still urges us, together with the Council whose wise helmsman he was, to live our common vocation: the universal call to holiness. Not to half measures, but to holiness,” he said. For his part, Archbishop Romero, the pope said, “left the security of the world, even his own safety, in order to give his life according to the Gospel, close to the poor and to his people, with a heart drawn to Jesus and his brothers and sisters.” Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome