Franciscan Brother Octavio Durán returns the shoes worn at St. Oscar Romero’s martyrdom to Sister Tránsito de la Cruz, superior of the community at Divine Providence Hospital, center, in El Salvador. (Octavio Durán, Maryknoll Magazine | OSV News)As I held Archbishop Óscar Romero’s empty shoes in my trembling hands, I felt gravity heavier than their weight.
It was the evening of March 24, 1980, at San José de la Montaña, where I was a seminarian in San Salvador. Our daily routine proceeded normally until the end of the 5:30 p.m. Mass, when devastating news shattered our world. Archbishop Romero had been assassinated while celebrating Mass at the Divine Providence Hospital chapel.
Propped up on pillows, ice packs piled on my aching chest, I watched our parish livestream of the celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday. After the painful biopsy earlier that morning, I could not make it to church – one more loss in an unexpectedly hard Holy Week.