Born in Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador, in 1917, Oscar Romero was trained by his father to be a carpenter, but he went on to the seminary and later studied in Rome for a licentiate in theology. After his ordination there in 1942, Romero returned to El Salvador to serve as a pastor for 20 years, eventually becoming a seminary rector. He served the Salvadoran bishops’ conference and directed a fairly conservative archdiocesan newspaper.