Oscar Romero spoke often about the need for all of us to fight injustice. He believed that God was with those who suffered and stood by and supported those who took a stand for what was right. Romero gave his life for those suffering in El Salvador, but his words about justice ring true in America's own struggle with civil rights.
The 8th graders of the Arrupe Division have learned about Romero and his steadfast faith in religion class and now they are connecting his words to the American Civil Rights Movement in social studies class. By examining these case studies we can all deepen our commitment to fighting injustices thereby drawing us closer to God.
"We suffer with those who have disappeared, those who have had to flee their homes, and those who have been tortured." -Oscar Romero
ReplyDeleteThis quote by Oscar Romero, I beleive, speaks to the Mississippi Murders. It tells us that we should care for those who have to go through tough times even though they shouldn't. We should show that we care by going against these murders. It is present in the Mississippi Murders because we should care for the 3 men who died and do something to stop it from happening again. The 3 men who were killed shouldn't have been. It was unjust and immoral. Oscar Romero is telling us to stop more people from "disappearing" and "being tortured. The quote says we have to fight for what is right and emoethize for those who are killed and tortured for doing the right thing. The three men were killed for standing up for what Civil Rights of all people and Oscar Romero, in this quote, is telling us that we should suffer with them, but keep fighting.
-Ben Smith
"We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us".
ReplyDeleteI believe that this quote from Oscar Romero is related to The March on Washington. Everyone that marched to Washington on August 28th, 1963, was there to improve their social conditions. The first march was called the March on Wahshington for Jobs and Freedom. People there wanted to improve the population of blacks who have jobs, and to improve the quality of their jobs. They also wanted the ban on certian good schools and resturants to be lifted from the blacks. That also means that they didn't want there to be seperate things for only blacks and things for only whites. The march had 250,000 attendees, and there, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his speech, "I have a Dream". The speech was about how Mr. King wanted the people to know what he wanted for the future of the USA.
- Jeff Gailius
"When the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to and perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises"
ReplyDeleteI really think this quote is related to March on Washington. I think this because the black people were emmitting a cry of oppression. People were trying to get rights peacefully. They did things like the March on Washington to get their message to many people so people were not blind to their oppression. The church, therefore, should denounce the social structure that held black people back. They should have also tried to help the people who were being oppressed. That is why this quote is related to the March on Wasington.
- John Lynch
I believe that the quote "We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us."
ReplyDeleteI believe that this quote means that we should take the initiative to bring peace and justice to our world. This quote relates to the Freedom Rides. I think this because the people who participated in the Freedom Rides were there to help bring justice and peace and to help improve social conditions for the blacks. They also wanted to confront the discriminatory Jim Crow laws in the Southern States. The people who participated in the Freedom Rides were inspired by God to help bring peace and justice to the United States. After the first Freedom Rides were failures, a women by the name of Diana Nash started a second Freedom Rides. She was inspired by God that she should never give up and continue the Freedom Rides. This is why this quote is related to the Freedom Rides.
"When the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to and perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises."
ReplyDeleteI believe that this quote is related to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. This quote is talking about the work that the church can do to help people who are oppressed in this world. The church believes in non-violent solutions to all problems, and that was also the belief of the men and women in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who were working for peace and equal treatment of all people, including black people. They did peaceful protests and other non-violent actions to help solve te poblem of racial injustice. They gathered a large group of supporters and were very successful.
-Ned Lipsett
"We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us".
ReplyDeleteOscar Romero wanted people to not be afraid to do what most people would not if it benefited the world around them. The Greensboro Four demonstrated this by making the sit-in movement successful. God inspired them to continue their protest even though it was at great personal risk to their own lives. God inspired others to join the movement after knowing what might happen. These brave people took the initiative after recognizing society and God needed them to stop the injustices within our country and bring peace and prosperity. They never gave up, because they knew God supported their cause.
-Will Doyle
Ciaran Burke,
ReplyDelete"Brothers, you came for our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says 'thou shalt not kill'. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders."
I belive this quote is related to my topic which is the march from Selma to Montgomery. They were not marching specificaly to stop the killing that was happing. More to show that blacks and whites are equal so they both deserve equal rights. It clearly says in the quote that that you are killing your own people or your own people. During the march they were trying to show there is no differences between them.
"We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us".
ReplyDeleteIn this quote, Oscar Romero is saying that every effort to improve a society is one that God blesses, and that he wants all of us to take part in. He is also saying that God wants all of us to take part in improve a society. The Greensboro sit-ins are related to this quote becuase the 4 students that took part in the sit-in were making the effort to try to improve society. They were doing what God wanted them to do, and may have even been inspired by God to do the sit-ins. The Greensboro sit-ins are also related to this quote because after the first day of the sit-ins, they received many more people that were commited to the sit-ins, and wanted to help improve the sit-ins. This is related to the part of the qoute that says God demands us to take part in improving society, because many people wanted to take part, and they all wanted to improve society.
-Kevin Walsh
"We suffer with those who have disappeared, those who have had to flee their homes, and those who have been tortured." -Oscar Romero
ReplyDeleteI believe this quote from Oscar Romero is about suffering and hard times. The quote says that the people around you don't just suffer but also you as a person suffers also with the people around you. This quote also has relation to the Mississippi murders. The MIssissippi Murders consisted of three men who were lynched by the Klu Klux Klan. The three men who were murdered were part of the NAACP. When they were tortured to then be murdered everyone else part of the NAACP suffered with sorrow and also some other people from the NAACP have been killed.That is how this quote from Oscar Romero is related to my topic.
-Erik Eckelhofer
"We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us."
ReplyDeleteThis quote is saying that God wants us to do everything in our power to improve our society which is full of injustice. This is exactly what the Greensboro Four were trying to do. They knew that there was a lot of injustice in the United States at the time, and by doing everything they could to improve society they were doing what God wanted of them. The Greensboro Four only started the sit-in movement. After the first sit-in, many more joined the movement. People realized God was calling them to improve society and by following the Greensboro Four, that is exactly what they did. The Greensboro Four also relate to this quote because they realized God wanted them to do this and they kept doing it until justice was served. The quote says that God blesses your effort and that was their motivation for going through with this.
-Geoffrey Stillman
"When the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to and perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises."
ReplyDeleteThis quote connects very well to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The quote says how the Church reacts towards the cause of the problem. The Church recognizes the oppressed people and acts out towards what is causing them to be oppressed. This is like the SCLC because the men and women of this group preform nonviolent uprises and protests toward those who discriminate blacks. They work towards equality and equal treatment for all. They recognize the plead from the oppressed blacks and act upon it by peacefully protesting to the oppressors ( the whites). Through these nonviolent tactics, this group gets their opinion across and people consider it.
-Brian Perez
"We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us."
ReplyDeleteIn this quote, Oscar Romero talks about bringing justice to our crooked and bigoted society. He says that God praises us when we try to make society better, he begs us to make it better, but in the end, he implores us to better our society. He wants us to go out of our way to better our society. This quote really exemplifies what the idea was behind the Freedom Rides. The Freedom Riders all saw the injustices in our country, and so they went down South to address the terrible conditions. They wanted to augment our country by bringing justice to the oppressed African Americans and better the civil situation for them. Their message was that peace would make our society a better place, and they used peaceful tactics to show how much better pour society was if it was a peaceful one. God invigorated them spiritually and gave them the strength to spread the message of peace and justice across America, and to stare unjust segregation laws in the face. God also influenced Diane Nash to start up a new Freedom Ride after the original was disbanded, She knew that someone had to go out of their way to bring justice to our crooked society, like Oscar Romero says, and she did it. They rode through the South on buses and left peace and justice behind them. This quote tells people to make our society a just society, and to go out of their way to do it. This is what Diane Nash, and all the other Freedom Riders did by just stepping on a bus and vowing not to fight back.
-James Kraunelis
"Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says,'Thou shalt not kill'. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders."
ReplyDeleteI believe this relates to the topic because in Freedom rides, when people were getting off of the they were attacked, not by total strangers but by possibly known town members and their fellow countrymen. In the first 2 sentences, Oscar Romero talks of how fellow soldiers are killing their own people and destroying their country they love so much. Now imagine those soldiers are the attackers that attacked the freedom riders coming off the bus and their hurting their own people by attacking them and calling them all types of hurtful words. In the rest of the quote, Romero talks about how God wants you not to attack and hurt others. This relates to the attackers and how God wanted them not to attack and kill freedom riders and should look past all this hatred and racism. How they should've look into their consciences and see that all that they were doing was wrong.
"We know that every effort to improve society,above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us"
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I believe that this paticular quote is a good representation of the meaning of my topic (March on Washington). During the March on Washinton, both whites and african americans came together in order to protest for their civil rights. The March on Washington was a form of expression that fought against social injustice against the Blacks. This quote is explaining how it is necesary to improve society by eliminating social injustice. God expects that all people must work towards a better society. I believe that the March on Washington truly fortifies these ideas. Martin Luther King belived that social justice must end. In his famous "I have a dream speech", Martin Luther King is expressing his ideas of a world where all people are treated equally. This quote by Remero backs up the idea of civil equality. That is why I believe that this quote is expressing the idea that social equality may exist, however God wants and expects his people to end it. The March on Washington and the El Salvadorian Revolution are perfect examples of the quote. Though injustice was present; people such as Oscar Romero and Martin Luther King worked hard to create a better society and get rid of inequality. We are all expected to help those in need. People such as Martin Luther King have exemplfied this through protest, dedication and perserverence. That is why this quote is an example of what the March on Washington really stood for.
- Tim Larocque