Romero Week: Mass and Talk in Canterbury Parish
As part of the events and services taking place across the UK to mark the 43rd anniversary of the martyrdom of St Oscar Romero, St Thomas of Canterbury Church, which is home to a relic of St Oscar Romero, will hold Mass at 6.30 pm on 24th March 2023; St Oscar Romero's Feast Day. This will be followed by a talk by Peggy Healy, a Human Rights Activist, at 7.30 pm.
Peggy Healy will speak about St Oscar and the El Salvador martyrs, and how they inspire us to respond to the cry of the poor in the world of today. Peggy has deep and broad experience of community service, of advocacy and policy work on human rights in Latin America and globally.
For more than two decades, Peggy worked as a Maryknoll missionary sister in the United States and in Central America, where she was a close colleague and friend of the members of her congregation who were martyred in El Salvador. After working as a specialist paediatric nurse practitioner among poor, marginalised communities in Nicaragua throughout the repression and civil conflicts which raged across Central America, Peggy returned to health work in the South Bronx.
Peggy is a graduate of Fordham University’s School of Law, amongst her many achievements Peggy has received awards for her work as a peacemaker in Central America, for her service to survivors and families of those killed in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, and was honoured by President Clinton for her work in human rights.
She holds an honorary doctorate in human rights and since 2009 she has served as senior Vice-President for Canada and Latin America of Covenant House International, dedicated to empowering young people to overcome homelessness, trafficking and abuse.
Peggy is speaking in Birmingham, Canterbury, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, and Liverpool. See below for details, and more information about Peggy.
All are welcome
Canterbury Parish Matryrs Chapel
The main diocesan Shrine to St Oscar Romero is a brightly decorated reliquary cross which is located within St George’s Cathedral. However, within the Martyrs Chapel at St
Thomas of Canterbury Church sits a colourful stole worn by Archbishop Romero who, like Becket, was martyred at the hands of the state.
The stole is situated by the altar within the chapel, just as Romero was when celebrating Mass on that fateful day in 1980. The stole came to Canterbury when a relic of St Thomas Becket was presented to San Salvador Cathedral, the original owner having been a parishioner in Canterbury whose ancestor was one of Becket’s assassins. In return, San Salvador Cathedral generously presented a stole worn by Romero to Canterbury Parish and it was enshrined in the Martyrs Chapel on the Feast of the Translation of St Thomas of Canterbury on 7th July 1997.
