Carolyn Forche, poet, professor and political activist, will give the keynote address at the annual Romero Lecture at Rutgers-Camden on Friday, March 25.
Over a small supper in the kitchen of a convent in El Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Romero told Carolyn Forche firmly that she must return to the United States right away.
He wanted her to tell the American people of the terrible human rights abuses committed by the government in his country.
She tried to convince him that he too should leave. He was No. l on the published hit lists for right-wing death squads. But the archbishop refused to go.
Reluctantly, Forche left the next day.
One week later, on March 24, 1980, Archbishop Romero was shot to death by a hired gunman while celebrating Mass late one afternoon in a small hospital chapel.
Three decades later Forche, an internationally known poet and human rights activist, continues to speak out. She will give the keynote address Friday, March 25 at the 11th annual Romero Lecture, sponsored by the Romero Center of the Diocese of Camden.
The theme of the day is “Images of Justice: Prophets, Poets, and the Arts.” The speech by Forche (pronounced for-SHAY) will be at 7 p.m. in the Student Center of Rutgers-Camden.
“I’m going to talk about the ‘poetry of witness,’” Forche said. “And I’m going to tell the story of my own spiritual education in El Salvador, and my experience with Monsignor Romero, and how it changed my life and my work – my poetry and my work in the world – and set me on a new path.”
Forche is a professor of English at Georgetown University and the director of the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice. She won the Yale Younger Poets Prize for the first of her four books of poetry, “A Gathering of Tribes,” published in 1976.
It was her second book, “The Country Between Us,” published five years later, that brought her national recognition. Poems on the plight of the poor and the oppressed in El Salvador helped focus attention on the conditions that culminated in a 12-year civil war in that Central American nation.
“I never imagined that it would be a poetry book that would lead me to speak to American audiences and assemblies about oppression in El Salvador,” she said.
“There is nothing that one man will not do to another,” reads the final line in her poem “The Visitor.”
“This is the work of bringing the sin to the eye,” Forche explains. “This is the work of denouncing wrong and injustice.” But she adds, “We can’t turn away from this. We must find that capacity within ourselves and work on ourselves. So that is the work of denunciation. But there’s also the work of redemption and of transformation.”
It is, she says, “the work of not allowing injustice to go unremarked or unchallenged. That’s what Monsignor was doing. He was not allowing it to go unchallenged. He could have been a comfortable bishop saying Mass and living in a big house with a nice car and a driver, and go to dinner with government officials.”
Instead, Forche said, “He chose to denounce injustice. He chose to challenge this kind of violence. He chose to stand with the people.”
Forche went to El Salvador in 1978 and spent much of the next two years there. She went at the urging of Leonel Gomez Zides, a coffee farmer and adviser to agrarian unions. Gomez was the nephew of Claribel Alegria, a Central American poet then living in Spain, whose poetry Forche had translated for publication.
It was Gomez who set up the supper meeting that would turn out to be the last time Forche saw Archbishop Romero – who preferred to be known to his people as simply “Monsignor.”
In her keynote speech this month, Forche said, “I’m hoping to give them just a little personal glimpse of Monsignor. I just want them to feel connected to him. I want them to understand that they are connected to him . . . that he’s not a remote saintly figure.”
Forche feels that connection and in her mind still talks with the archbishop.
She remains grateful for the road he showed her.
“He was very human,” Forche said. He could admit to being nervous but he demonstrated that it was still possible to show great courage.
“The last time I saw him,” she said, while sitting at that kitchen table in the convent, “I was struck very profoundly with the realization that I was in the presence of a saint, a living saint.”
About the Romero Center
The Romero Center is a Catholic urban retreat and social justice education center in East Camden. The organization is a ministry of St. Joseph Pro-Cathedral. The center is located in the building that once served as St. Joseph’s convent.
The center opened on March 24, 1998, the 18th anniversary of the assassination of its namesake, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. Archbishop Romero was an outspoken advocate for human rights and social justice. During a period of social unrest that culminated in more than a decade of civil war in that Central American country, the archbishop was shot to death by a hired gunman while celebrating Mass.
Efforts have been under way since 1990 to have Archbishop Romero declared a saint.
In discussing the purpose of the Romero Center, the organization’s website (www.romero-center.org) explains: “We want young people to see that there is both opportunity and challenge in the work of the Church. We want adults to understand their role in bringing about a societal commitment to end poverty and discrimination in our world.”
Urban Challenge is the center’s signature program. The purpose is to deal with issues of urban poverty, race, and social and economic justice. Activities involve a combination of volunteer service, study, reflection and prayer. The program is open to all religious denominations.
Larry DiPaul, director of life and justice for the Diocese of Camden, said between 10,000 and 12,000 people have participated in the Urban Challenge program.
Themes for some of the past annual Romero Lectures have been peace, the plight of the poor, the problems of undocumented residents, the death penalty and economic justice.
If you go:
What: 11th annual Romero Lecture, “Images of Justice: Prophets, Poets, and the Arts.”
Where: The Student Center on the campus of Rutgers University in Camden.
When: Friday, March 25.
• 1 p.m. Dramatic presentation: “A Line in the Sand.” Personal stories of people affected by migration on the U.S./Mexican border, followed by a discussion facilitated by Dennis Fisher, program officer for education with the northeast region of Catholic Relief Services.
• 3:15 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Concurrent workshops: “Expressions of Hope.” A film workshop features Dr. Linda Barratte of the College of St. Elizabeth talking about cinema and social justice and Aaron Blandon, an African-American director, musician and film maker on justice and reality reflected through film and the arts. An art workshop will be presented by Mickey McGrath, an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales, an artist, writer and speaker who explores the relationship between art and faith. A crafts workshop will feature fair trade retailer Darlene DeLaPaz of Ten Thousand Villages and Bill and Betty Baumann of the East Africa Center.
• 7 p.m. Keynote address by Carolyn Forche, poet, professor and political activist.
Cost: Afternoon sessions are free. Keynote admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students with group discounts available. Light refreshments will follow the lecture.
For more information, call 856-964-9777.
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