Here's a link to a translation of his final homily, from the invaluable Romerotrust.org:

http://www.romerotrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/homilies/Final%20homily%20of%20Romero.pdf

Not really in the habit of marking feast days, but this one is a favorite for a variety of reasons. The most immediate of those reasons is that I accidentally celebrated the very first one in 2019 (he was canonized in 2018) at one of the most heavily Salvadoran churches in Washington DC.

I was looking around for a new church because I'd recently moved and hadn't found any ones I really liked in my new neighborhood. I prefer to walk so typically, my attitude is that if I've got to drive for Mass then I may expand my search.

In any event, I settled on Shrine of the Sacred Heart on 16th St NW. That's right in Columbia Heights, which has a big Salvadoran population who I figured would be at that Mass, particularly the 8am Spanish language one that I settled on. I'm not a native Spanish speaker and am really only comfortable reading it and listening to it, but that's fine for church. Instantly upon entering, I was floored by the crowd. It was extraordinarily large for an 8am Mass, especially in DC, which is a city that has a lot of Catholics but isn't really a CATHOLIC city like Chicago or New Orleans. But it was standing room only.

Turns out, that was because of the pretty lavish plans they had for the inaugural St. Oscar Romero feast day. Complete with the giant photo as part of the procession; a full choir; and an extremely long homily - all of which occurred while more and more people flooded in.

This story isn't actually that interesting, except that it happens every once and awhile that I stumble right into the middle of giant DC celebrations that aren't really common stops for absurdly introverted white upper-midwesterners (Howard Homecoming was another hilarious "what on earth have I wandered into?") and it's nice to be reminded why I live in cities - that the world is much bigger and stranger than my stupid little self-created corner of it. Cooler even still to be a part of the celebration of the first feast day for this saint and hero.

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"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad