On the morning of Tuesday, October 14, 2025, the blessing and unveiling ceremony of the bust of Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero, alumnus of the Pontifical Gregorian University, took place. The ceremony, presided over by the University Chaplain, Father Stefano Del Bove, S.J., was attended by Salvadoran students enrolled in the current academic year, the Rector, Father Mark Lewis, S.J., the Administrative Director, Father David Nazar, S.J., the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Father Peter Lah, S.J., and Dr. Julian Filochowski, Co-President of "The Romero Trust" and donor of the sculpture. Pending a new home, the bust — a copy of a work by the Georgian-American artist Lado V. Goudjabidze — has been placed in the new Chapel on the third floor of Palazzo Frascara.

Archbishop Romero was born in 1917 in Ciudad Barrios, into a large family of humble origins. He developed a vocation to the priesthood at a very young age and entered the minor seminary of San Miguel at the age of twelve. At twenty, he was sent to Rome, where he studied at the Gregorian University from 1937 to 1941, earning a bachelor's degree and a licentiate in theology. The following year, he was ordained a priest in the Cappella Maggiore of the Pio Latino Americano College in Rome. Upon returning to his homeland, he served as a parish priest for several years. In 1970, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, and in 1974, bishop of Santiago de María, one of the poorest dioceses in El Salvador. In Santiago de María, he also experienced the oppression of the people under the military repression that gripped the country.

In 1977, Archbishop Romero was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador. Openly committed to defending the vulnerable, he was deeply shaken by the assassination of Jesuit Rutilio Grande, his friend and collaborator. From then on, every Sunday he began following his homily with a commentary on the daily news, naming violence and abuse. His messages, broadcast nationwide, were followed by increasingly bloody retaliation in the form of desecrated churches and an escalation in the number of murdered priests. On March 24, 1980, during the celebration of Mass, while he was elevating the host in consecration, Romero himself was assassinated by a hitman sent by the leader of the conservative nationalist party.

On February 3, 2015, Pope Francis recognized the martyrdom in odium fidei of Archbishop Romero, raising him to the glory of the altars on May 23, 2015, and canonizing him on October 14, 2018.

• "When the prophet disturbs the selfish consciences of those who are not building according to God’s plans, then he is a nuisance and must be eliminated, murdered, thrown into a pit. He must be persecuted and not allowed to speak his bothersome words. But the prophet could not speak otherwise."
  — Saint Oscar Romero, Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), 1977
   
• "All the members of the People of God have a duty to make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve. Unjust structures need to be recognized and eradicated by the force of good, by changing mindsets but also, with the help of science and technology, by developing effective policies for societal change. It must never be forgotten that the Gospel message has to do not only with an individual’s personal relationship with the Lord, but also with something greater"
  — Pope Leo XIV, Dilexit te, 97
   

(The card certifying Romero's studies at the Gregorian University, with the handwritten note "assassinated";
courtesy of the General Secretariat of the Pontifical Gregorian University)