San Salvador, May 22 (RHC)-- El Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero will be beatified Saturday in San Salvador in a step toward sainthood. Archbishop Romero was known as the "Voice of the Voiceless," an advocate for the poor and leading critic of the U.S.-backed Salvadoran military government.

He was killed March 24, 1980, by members of a U.S.-backed death squad while delivering mass at a hospital chapel. His assassination was ordered by Salvadoran military officer Roberto D’Aubuisson, a graduate of the U.S.-run School of the Americas.

An envoy of Pope Francis will lead his beatification tomorrow before an expected audience of hundreds of thousands of people.