Reception at Houses of Parliament celebrates Oscar Romero

Julian Filochowski, Peter Bottomley, Kevin McNamara Eric Avebury, Ambassador Werner Romero, Ambassador Bernhard Garside image: Sophie Stanes

A reception was held in the Houses of Parliament last Tuesday, to celebrate Blessed Oscar Romero and to mark his 1978 Nobel Peace Prize nomination by British Parliamentarians. The event was held in the State Rooms of Speaker's House, courtesy of of Mr Speaker the Rt Hon John Bercow MP.

Clare Dixon, Secretary of the Archbishop Romero Trust introduced the reception and a special presentation was given by Julian Filochowski, Chair of the Trust, who worked closely with Archbishop Romero when he was on the staff of CIIR.

"During the 1970s, El Salvador was engulfed in deep internal strife and violent conflict" Filochowski said. "In fact the country was on the brick of civil war throughout Romero's three years as archbishop of the capital city. Romero faced and responded with steadfast courage to the torture and disappearance of political prisoners; paramilitary killings of community leaders; peasant massacres and indiscriminate shootings of demonstrators; desecration of churches; kidnappings, and ongoing defamation in the media and death threats.

"In a context of massive cover-up and orchestrated lies in the media, Romero, from his pulpit and over the radio, spoke the unvarnished truth of what was happening in his country, denouncing repression, pleading for social reform and doggedly pushing all sides to find non-violent solutions.

And El Salvador's human rights record became international news.

"Early in 1978, in response to an all-party campaign in Parliament, the then British government cancelled a Ministry of Defence contract to sell second-hand armoured vehicles to the Salvadorian military. In the wake of that decision, recognising Romero's courage and also his vulnerability, seeking to offer him a measure of international protection, 118 MPs and Peers signed a letter to Oslo proposing Romero for the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. 40 of those signatories are still alive today and have been invited to this special occasion.

"The signatories were collected at the October 1978 Party Conferences thanks largely to the superhuman efforts of Kevin McNamara at the Labour event in Blackpool - even managing to cajole trade union leaders Jack Jones , Joe Gormley and Hugh Scanlon to sign up - and Peter Bottomley at the Conservative Conference in Brighton."

"It was then decided, thanks to Eric Avebury, its chair, that the Parliamentary Human Rights Group should send a delegation to Central America to tell Romero directly of the Nobel nomination and to express the concern of British Parliamentarians about human rights abuses in El Salvador. The delegation was headed by an independent Peer, the late Lord Pratap Chitnis, whom we should also be honouring posthumously. Peter Bottomley was part of that delegation while Kevin McNamara nominated MP Dennis Canavan in his place. They produced a devastating report."

Filochowski said the day marked "an important act of British parliamentary solidarity".

In his brief speech, Peter Bottomley described how the parliamentary group had travelled to El Salvador, against the advice of the Foreign Office. While they were there they made many visits including one where they managed to get inside a prison at the National Guard headquarters and found torture equipment. Much later Mr Bottomley said, he was visited at his office in Parliament by a man from El Salvador, who told him that when the MPs came to the prison he was being beaten there. "You saved my life" he told him. Mr Bottomley said he hoped sharing that story would help MPs realise the impact they can have by making such visits. He ended by recalling a conversation he had with Archbishop Romero. He asked the Archbishop if he was concerned about being killed and Romero replied: "haven't worse things happened to better people than us?"

HE Werner Romero, Ambassador of El Salvador, presented the Dr Jose Gustavo Guerroro Award to Eric Avebury, Peter Bottomley and Kevin McNamara and expressed the gratitude of the people of El Salvador for their support.

The reception concluded with a toast to Oscar Romero given by Bishop John Rawsthorne, a Trustee of the Archbishop Romero Trust: "I'd like to pray that the inspiration of Oscar Romero continue to support all those all over the world who walk with the poor and speak for the poor. Viva Romero!"

See also: ICN 12 July 2015
Westminster: Wreath-laying for Blessed Oscar Romero www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=27908