A martyr remembered.

Calling Archbishop Oscar A. Romero "a prophet, a martyr, and true pastor of the church," Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony reaffirmed the slain Salvadoran church leader's legacy at a memorial marking the 20th anniversary of his assassination. Romero "would agree that we would be betraying the church if we did not continue working for the poor and for the legitimate struggle to get a more just society," Mahony told nearly 30,000 worshipers at a March 24 Mass outside San Salvador's cathedral. "We must not allow the seed that he sowed to become just a memory."

The memorial observance attracted Romero supporters from around the world, as well as many peasants from surrounding villages. The Mass was followed by a three-mile march through the streets of San Salvador, winding its way through wealthy neighborhoods with luxurious homes and past homeless people sleeping in cardboard boxes.

Romero, who was gunned down while celebrating Mass in 1980, was one of E1 Salvador's most outspoken critics of human rights abuses. During the country's 12-year civil war, the archbishop often denounced social injustices from the pulpit. His strong condemnation of repression by the state security forces made him a target of the military's death squads.

The 20th anniversary of his death prompted renewed calls for Romero's elevation to sainthood, although a Vatican official said it won't happen this year, according to a Catholic News Service report. Among those urging his beatification is Mafia Julia Hernandez, director of the Archdiocese of San Salvador's legal aid and human rights office. "He was a martyr of the poor, a martyr of Catholic social teaching, and of the magisterium," she said. "Rome is waiting to decide--but they are going to beatify him, and we don't have any doubts." However, Auxiliary Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez of San Salvador said there is "a certain degree of unease" in Rome about Romero's canonization as a martyr.

But even El Salvador's congress gushed glowing words about Romero on the eve of the anniversary of his death. Romero was "a pastor who fought for justice, freedom, democracy, and peace," said a recognition approved by a majority of the 84 representatives in congress after intense negotiation between the former guerrilla group, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, now a political party, and deputies of the governing ARENA party. "As we commemorate one more year since his death, we hope that incidents such as this and thousands of other murders never happen in our country," said the statement.