How might Archbishop Romero analyze (comment on) the following passage from Gaudium et Spes - Essay Example

Archbishop Romero and the ‘Gaudium et Spes’ Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador was a Catholic cleric profoundly concerned about human rights and the alleviation of human misery. In his vision of the Catholic faith, the clergy had an obligation to speak out against the oppression and misery suffered by the lay people. He spoke out against the prevalence of poverty and the lack of social justice in San Salvador. He condemned the brutal practices of extra judicial killings and torture that were committed by the right wing Salvadoran government and its allied militias (Brockman).

In Archbishop Romero’s view, the Catholic Church was not an organization separate from the Catholic laity; it was a Church of the people. In his view the Church was not the name of the buildings or of the hierarchical structure of clergymen but was the name of the collective of Catholic people, most of who were poor and oppressed (Brockman).The ‘Gaudium et Spes’ (Joy and Hope) apostolic constitution adopted at the Second Vatican Council in 1965 proclaims a similar view of the Church. In this document, the laity are urged to learn what their faith demands from them in the course of their secular duties.

They are told that the role of the clergy in this respect is that of a teacher. The clergy will advise them on what God may want them to do, however they should cultivate their own conscience and religious sensibility and not expect explicit guidance from the clergy on every issue (Second Vatican Council).This passage has many parallels with the work of Archbishop Romero. The ‘Gaudium et Spes’ calls for a sort of spiritual and intellectual emancipation of the laity who are to educate themselves in their religion with the help of the clergy and in many matters where the explicit guidance of the Church is not available, they are to use the wisdom of the clergy to determine for themselves what God wants from them.

In this view of the Catholic clergy, the clergymen are not the autocratic leaders of the laity but their guides and spiritual advisors. Archbishop Romero too held that the Catholic clergy should not be the leaders or rulers of the people but their advisors and guides. He called for a physical emancipation of the laity from the forces of exploitation and oppression in addition to their spiritual and intellectual liberation.Another aspect of congruence between the teachings and actions of Archbishop Romero and that of the ‘Gaudium et Spes’ is in proclaiming the role of the Catholic Christianity in the secular sphere of existence for a Catholic lay person.

According to this view, the role of religion is not relegated to the Church but the effects of the Church’s teachings should also be visible in the work and private lives of the Church’s followers. This view of the Church as a guide for the Catholic laity in all aspects of their lives can also be found in the work of Archbishop Romero. According to Romero’s beliefs, the teachings of the Church regarding empathy with the poor and oppressed should not merely be confined to the Church or to charity and empathy in a person’s dealings with other but it should extend over all aspects of a person’s life, including the political aspect.

In this way empathy with the poor and the oppressed, necessitated for Archbishop Romero that he speak out against social conditions which allowed the rich to exploit the poor and speak out against political conditions which allowed the ruling party to oppress the opposition and allowed the rich and influential class of people to perpetuate their hold on the government through acts of violence and brutality aimed against their political opponents. This view of the Catholic Church as a moral authority which should guide all aspects of Christian’s private and public life also led him to condemn the rich countries for supporting dictatorial regimes in poor countries in order to further their strategic aims.

Works CitedBrockman, James R. Pastoral Teaching of Archbishop Oscar Romero . 20 May 1988. 27 August 2010 .Second Vatican Council. Gaudium et Spes Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. 7 December 1965. 27 August 2010 .