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

I saw your name (which I associate with MN), then in skimming the post I saw Columbia Heights, then I saw DC... and then I was hella confused for a second lol

--

"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

I kind of pull the "adopted Minnesotan" thing. I lived in the Twin Cities for awhile, first St. Paul and then Uptown Minneapolis. My wife is Minnesotan so we're back there to see family pretty often. So it's usually how I present myself on the board, especially because it's where I lived when I started posting.

But I actually grew up in the MD suburbs of DC and currently live in DC. Sometimes I feel kind of like a dork for retaining that identifier, but it's also pretty aspirational because I've been scheming to return for awhile now.

It helps that the circle of okayMinnesotans is kind of small and, you included, largely people whose posts I enjoy. Don't really want to give up that secret handshake.

______________________________

"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

>I kind of pull the "adopted Minnesotan" thing. I lived in the
>Twin Cities for awhile, first St. Paul and then Uptown
>Minneapolis. My wife is Minnesotan so we're back there to see
>family pretty often. So it's usually how I present myself on
>the board, especially because it's where I lived when I
>started posting.
>
>But I actually grew up in the MD suburbs of DC and currently
>live in DC. Sometimes I feel kind of like a dork for retaining
>that identifier, but it's also pretty aspirational because
>I've been scheming to return for awhile now.
>
>It helps that the circle of okayMinnesotans is kind of small
>and, you included, largely people whose posts I enjoy. Don't
>really want to give up that secret handshake.

this post from the original premise you posted, what are your thoughts on D.C. becoming a state?

"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.

Though because I like feeling smart on the internet and I am presently proctoring a test on ZOOM for a total of one (1) student, I'm happy to inject some un-needed "um, but" that are maybe worth keeping in mind but ultimately don't move the scale at all.

>this post from the original premise you posted, what are your
>thoughts on D.C. becoming a state?

Our pro/con feels pretty simple. It's clearly undemocratic that we are not a state, and the statehood movement locally is strong and old and should be rewarded. Sometimes I wish we were more assertive and candid about how it would help the Democratic party, at the very least because the only good faith "con" I can think of is that the party is definitely going to take us for granted once statehood is achieved. Historically, states have often been created for explicitly partisan reasons and I don't see any upside in pretending that's not the case here.

I appreciate the good libs that live in the city and support statehood, but they're not going to live here once they start having kids and make enough money to buy a house in Fairfax or Montgomery County. Statehood is going to change the internal politics of DC in huge, weird ways and the only one that I'm even moderately concerned about (to be clear - still NOT a real case against statehood, just a worry) is that we've actually got a pretty robust leftwing political movement in the city and I suspect that's going to get drowned if the stakes rise from DC Council seats to actual voting federal officeholders.

Or, to put it another way, we could get some socialists on the DC Council. We're probably not going to sneak one into the Senate or the House once the party turns "it's a state" level attention to us.

But as I said, still what the people here deserve. I just hope our weird leftist movement can survive.

______________________________

"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