Monday, September 09, 2013

“Romero will be beatified soon”


[P]ope Bergoglio will meet in a few days with Gustavo Gutierrez, the father of liberation theology, and in a short time Oscar Romero, the bishop murdered at the altar in San Salvador, will be beatified. To confirm these two news items with much weight for the Catholic Church, was the Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ...
"I read 6 volumes about Oscar Romero - said Müller - and eventually the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith gave its Nihil Obstat." This means that the bishop who was killed because he defended the poor and exploited shall be a saint.
"For the people in Latin America - said Gutierrez - Romero was already a saint, but it is very important and full of meaning that he become one for the Church."
In fact, the news of the Nihil Obstat by the CDF for Romero had previously been confirmed by Müller, but the details on the CDF review ("6 volumes", etc.) was not known. According to the Canonization Office of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, which began the Romero investigation, the Salvadoran Church compiled four volumes of Romero's sermons and other writings.  The six volumes Müller reviewed could have included these materials and, perhaps, additional analysis by experts and theologians working for the CDF.  Müller's revelation that he reviewed the materials suggests that the Nihil Obstat was given sometime between July 2012 when Müller took over as Prefect, and February 2013, when Pope Benedict resigned (Müller had previously said that the approval was given during Benedict's reign).

"The announcement" was made in the basilica of Santa Barbara in Mantua, where Müller and Gutierrez were promoting their book, "On the side of the poor: Liberation theology, theology of the Church" (San Paolo-Emi Press).

Follow-up

After the meeting between Pope Francis and Gutierrez, the liberation theologian said that the Romero cause is “being worked on with engagement” and that, if all goes without a hitch, “the process should be short.” This suggests that the cause is in the final stretch under review by the theologians of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, as had been indicated by Bishop Paglia, using arguments derived from the process of Fr. Pino Puglisi. Under such a scenario, it is possible to foresee an outcome within a six month timeframe.

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