The following comes from a September 21 Press Enterprise article by Stephen Wall:

The name of a slain Salvadoran archbishop who was beatified in May will adorn a new Roman Catholic parish planned in Eastvale.

It’s likely the first parish in the United States named for Blessed Oscar Romero, who was assassinated in El Salvador while celebrating Mass in 1980, a national Catholic group said.

Diocese of San Bernardino Bishop Gerald R. Barnes made the announcement to priests at a convocation in Palm Desert and via Twitter on Friday, September 18. Barnes appointed the Reverend Patrick Kirsch as pastor of the parish.

Blessed Oscar Romero Parish will be the 92nd in the diocese, spokesman John Andrews said. The diocese, which covers Riverside and San Bernardino counties, serves about 1.6 million Catholics.

Andrews said he hasn’t talked to Barnes about the decision to name the parish for Romero, a victim of a violent civil war that lasted more than a decade in El Salvador.

Romero “showed tremendous witness in an environment of persecution and danger and he never wavered in being Catholic and standing for the things that Christ teaches,” Andrews said.

When the pope declared that Romero was a martyr of the church, it cleared the way for his beatification, a step before sainthood. The Vatican hasn’t made an official announcement that
Romero is scheduled to be canonized, but some have speculated Francis may do so during his papacy.