“If they kill me I will rise in the Salvadoran people.” These words of Archbishop Oscar Romero are emblazoned over the door to the chapel on the University of Central America in San Salvador, El Salvador.

These were Archbishop Romero’s words some weeks before he was gunned down while celebrating evening Mass by members of El Salvador’s infamous “death squads.” It happened on March 24, 1980.

One day before his martyrdom in his Sunday radio sermon, he pleaded with all armed actors to stop the killings. At the end of his sermon he cried out: “In the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: stop the repression.”

The journey of Archbishop Oscar Romero was one of a gradual conversion to the side of the poor. As a young priest he had not been affected by the growing numbers of people who disappeared or were imprisoned or murdered.

Even when he was chosen Archbishop of San Salvador on Feb. 10, 1977, it was expected that he would be careful not to do anything harmful in the church’s relationship with right-wing governments.

Scarcely a month later, March 12, 1977, a Jesuit priest, Father Rutilio Grande, was assassinated along with a 72 year-old layman and a young boy. Archbishop Romero knew Father Rutilio. The archbishop was deeply moved by his death and began to realize that power in Salvador was in the hands of wealthy oligarchs and the military.

A little less than a year after becoming the archbishop, the awakening conscience of Romero prompted him to proclaim in a radio sermon: “A preaching that does not point out social, political and economic sin is not the preaching of the Gospel.” He was voicing “structures of sin” that oppress and kill the poor.

His outspoken words brought him the bitter enmity of the oligarchy as well as resentment from some conservative bishops. Some accused him of being “subversive,” a code word for “communist” and a code word that sent signals to death squads waiting to rid the country of such people.

Still Archbishop Romero proclaimed: “A church that does not unite itself to the poor in order to denounce the injustices committed against them is not truly the church of Jesus Christ.”

While his words brought comfort to thousands of poor Salvadorans, he was also being monitored by the oligarchy and the military. He had received death threats as well as rejection by other bishops who felt he was subordinating the Gospel to politics.

Through it all Archbishop Romero continued to be converted by the poor of El Salvador. He proudly announced, “With this people it is not hard to be a good shepherd.”

But his voice and his hopes for change seemed to be a voice in the wilderness. Disappearances and bodies daily accumulating in the streets, and a growing guerrilla movement presented darkening clouds.

El Salvador’s military was supported and equipped by the U.S. government intent on stopping “subversion.” Just weeks before his martyrdom Archbishop Romero sent a letter to U.S. President Jimmy Carter pleading with him to stop the flow of military assistance.

The ears of the military had had enough. A single bullet killed him as he was celebrating Mass that Monday, March 24, 1980.

Today his body is buried in a tomb in the undercroft of the cathedral. That tomb is a place of pilgrimage for Salvadorans and for visitors alike. Archbishop Oscar Romero continues to rise in the Salvadoran people.