Editing Óscar Romero (section)

===Statements on persecution of the church===
[[Image:Oscar Romero by puigreixach.jpg|thumb|upright|Óscar Romero (pastel) by J. Puig Reixach (2013)]]

Romero denounced the persecution of members of the Catholic Church who had worked on behalf of the poor:<ref name="Louvaine">Oscar Romero, ''Voice of the Voiceless: The Four Pastoral Letters and Other Statements'' (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985), pp. 177–187.</ref>

{{Blockquote|In less than three years, more than fifty priests have been attacked, threatened, calumniated. Six are already martyrs—they were murdered. Some have been tortured and others expelled [from the country]. Nuns have also been persecuted. The archdiocesan radio station and educational institutions that are Catholic or of a Christian inspiration have been attacked, threatened, intimidated, even bombed. Several parish communities have been raided. If all this has happened to persons who are the most evident representatives of the Church, you can guess what has happened to ordinary Christians, to the campesinos, catechists, lay ministers, and to the ecclesial base communities. There have been threats, arrests, tortures, murders, numbering in the hundreds and thousands....

But it is important to note why [the Church] has been persecuted. Not any and every priest has been persecuted, not any and every institution has been attacked. That part of the church has been attacked and persecuted that put itself on the side of the people and went to the people's defense. Here again we find the same key to understanding the persecution of the church: the poor.|Óscar Romero|Speech at the [[Université catholique de Louvain]], [[Belgium]], 2 February 1980.}}