10,000 HONOR SLAIN SALVADORAN PRIEST

An estimated 10,000 people braved snow, frozen rain and near-freezing temperatures yesterday for a spirited, daylong commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar A. Romero.

The events culminated in the arrest by D.C. police of 479 people involved in a sit-down demonstration in front of the White House. U.S. Park Police arrested another 83 people on charges of demonstrating without a permit.

Romero, assassinated by a death squad during a Mass in San Salvador, has become the unofficial patron saint of El Salvador and is equally venerated by many people in the United States, who feel that military aid to that Central American country has been responsible for worsening internal strife there.

"Romero was a prophet," said Jim Wallis, who coordinated a memorial procession in front of the White House, where participants sat down and were arrested after refusing police orders to disperse.

Throughout the day, participants called to mind the letter that Romero wrote to then-president Jimmy Carter beseeching him not to give military aid to El Salvador.

"The contribution of your administration . . . will almost surely intensify the injustice and repression of the common people," Romero wrote a little more than a month before his death.

The letter was read with emotion by actor Raul Julia, who recently portrayed Romero in a movie about the clergyman's life. After reading the letter, Julia went to a nearby tent that enshrined the Roll Call for Peace in El Salvador.

Using the same type of visual impact that the Vietnam Memorial does, this wall lists the names of 70,000 Salvadorans who have been killed or have disappeared in the decade since Romero's death.

The organizers of the memorial are trying to match each of the names with the names of people from the United States. "It's a visual testament to the cost of the U.S. policy in Central America," said Tim Crouse, one of the organizers.

Yesterday's commemoration began with a prayer service at St. Aloysius Church, at North Capitol and I streets NW. The 1,000 participants there then marched to the Capitol, where police estimated the crowd to be about 6,500.

Shortly after noon, the crowd began a march toward the White House, which they circled before gathering at the Ellipse for a three-hour rally. By then, police were estimating the crowd to be 9,400 and still growing. Organizers said the crowd peaked at more than 10,000 people.

The weather seemed only to dramatize the demonstration: The countless placards protesting U.S. policy in Central America began to smear and drip as the constant downpour of wet snow caused the ink to run.

By the time of the march down Pennsylvania Avenue, people were already soaking wet.

Near the head of the procession, several people carried a 10-foot-high plastic bust of Romero that became significantly heavier as it became soaked, said Joe Orlando, a recent graduate of the Weston School of Theology in Massachusetts.

After the rally at the Ellipse, the bust led what the organizers called a funeral procession around the White House. It was finally laid on a pedestal on Pennsylvania Avenue.

There, several hundred people prepared to be arrested in a peaceful sit-down protest while thousands more gathered in Lafayette Square, chanting in support. Hundreds of D.C. police and U.S. Park Police moved in to make the arrests, only to discover that at least four patrol cars had been sprayed with red graffiti.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.