Eager to shake his image as a shiftless pothead surf slacker, New York Times Caribbean Correspondent Simon Romero went through the trouble of resurrecting slain Salvadoran religious icon Archbishop Oscar Romero on Friday, in order to add gravitas to an otherwise cheap quote about the state of the Venezuelan Church.
Monsignor Romero, the legendary leader of Central America’s pro-poor religious movement known as Liberation Theology, was assassinated by U.S.-backed death quads twenty eight years ago, during the great Reaganite struggle to liberate Central Americans from their own democratic choices. Archbishop Romero (no relation to Simon) maintains a larger than life presence throughout the region, although until last Friday he technically remained dead.
While an early version of Simon Romero’s story, published in the Times, concludes with a quote from a contemporary Liberation Theologian pointing out the hypocrisy of Venezuela’s mainline Catholic hierarchy, a second version, published in the International Herald Tribune, concludes with the same quote, attributed to the slain icon:
It remains unclear whether the younger Romero achieved this miracle using Santeria, a Caribbean style of voodoo popular in Venezuela, or simply through crappy editing skills.
"I'd say that 50 percent of Catholic priests in Venezuela secretly have wives," Romero said.
UPDATE: Despite his extraordinary achievement, a humble Simon Romero was eager to return to a normal life, and by Saturday he was back in his traditional role, publishing poorly researched, embarrassingly inaccurate drivel. Keepin' it real for the homies at CSIS yo.
