As of Thursday,
April 23, 2015, there is exactly one month left until the
beatification of Archbishop Óscar A. Romero in San Salvador on Saturday May 23rd. Over the past fourteen weeks, I have been
reporting on the preparations for the event.
This week, given the milestone of reaching the thirty-day mark, I want
to take a different approach and encourage anyone reading this to simply come
to San Salvador for the event. It’s one
thing to read about it, but you can do
something about it, which is to be there!
Here are ten reasons why you should go.
10. Everyone should attend a canonization or
beatification once in their lives!
Admit it: you’ve never been to one and you may never have this much
reason to attend one ever again.
Archbishop Romero himself attended the beatification of Francisco Coll
Guitart in Rome in 1979, and he even toured the saint’s native lands in northern Spain during the same trip. He accomplished many of the things
highlighted in these ten reasons to attend such an event.
9. El Salvador will surprise you. For a tiny country, El Salvador packs a big punch,
with a large population (over six million), and a lot of soul. The country has 23 volcanoes, including 6
relatively active ones that dictate the curvy beauty of the land. Other natural attractions include crater
lakes, sandy beaches, wooded peaks, and mangrove swamps. “The
hand of God,” Ven. Pius XII once declared, “who
gives everything its name and place, situated you in the center of the arc that
joins together the two parts of a world we call ‘New,’ and provided that you be
called The Republic of The Savior” («El Salvador»).
8. The ceremony will be a vast and diverse
gathering. Profiling as a large beatification event (comparable in its projected scope to
the Álvaro Portillo beatification in Madrid last year), the ceremony will
attract interesting and diverse people, from social justice types to mainstream
church people, backpackers from Europe and Latin America, and all else in
between. Perhaps you’ll get to stand
next to the bishop from Equatorial Guinea who RSVP’d—or better yet, next to a local
pushcart vendor who peddles his wares on the street to put his kids through
school.
7. This beatification is the hard-won
vindication of a holy man. This
beatification is not the predictable end to a ho-hum process. Just in 2012, an Italian paper characterized
the process as a “lost
cause,” which has
since made an astonishing turn-around to bring Óscar Romero the recognition
many of the rank and file had already given him by acclamation, but some
believed would never be officially attained because his message had been
twisted and his image badly mangled and misunderstood.
6. History will come alive. Nor will this be the raising to the altars of
some ancient, distant, historic figure from another time. Instead, you will hobnob with Romero’s
friends and perhaps even one or two erstwhile foes. Two of his brothers will be in attendance, as
well as some of Romero’s collaborators and contemporaries, to provide a living
narrative of his legacy. Forty years ago
this May, Romero issued his first pastoral letter as a bishop. You will stand amidst the people who attended
his masses, and for whom he gave his life.
5. Your presence will show solidarity with the
people of El Salvador. Now as
then, the people of El Salvador face violence and bloodshed—now, from runaway criminal
violence. The beatification event will
be secure, taking place in relatively safe San Salvador (much of the violence
is elsewhere), as well as in a highly secured, cordoned-off security perimeter
cleared for visiting international delegations and heads of state. Nonetheless, the beatification will give
weary Salvadorans a much-needed shot in the arm.
4. It will be an epic event in the region’s
road to post-war reconciliation.
In addition to being a balm for modern-day woes, the beatification will
help El Salvador reflect over and come to terms with its violent past.
El Salvador and other countries in the region, including Guatemala and
Nicaragua, experienced violent political upheavals and state repression in the
recent past. Romero’s beatification
relied in part on a United Nations Truth Commission which reported on the
assassination as a crime of war.
Romero’s beatification will force historical analysis and foster
historic memory in a region that badly needs both.
3. You will be a sign of hope for the poor. If you want to support Pope Francis’ dream of
“a
poor church for the poor,”
and want to continue Óscar Romero’s attitude, of never being ashamed of saying
“the Church of the Poor,” then this beatification is for you. One of the reasons we Romero devotees have
wished for his beatification so urgently is that we knew that his beatification,
like his life, would be an encouragement to the poor.
2. It will be a world-class pilgrimage. This beatification will bring spiritual
growth. On my first Romero pilgrimage,
an American traveling there told me: “El
Salvador broke my heart, but God came in through the rupture!” You will go to the only country in the world
named after Jesus Christ (“El Salvador” = Sp., The Savior), and visit a land of
martyrs. “Because behind [Romero], there
is Rutilio Grande and there are others,” Pope Francis was quick to point out (Fr. Grande’s canonization cause was
started this year). You will see the places Romero and the other Salvadoran martyrs
lived and died, including the churches associated with Romero.
1. Blessed Romero is the First of the “New
Martyrs.” Last but not least,
this is the beatification of the most famous and beloved martyr of the 20th
Century, who has come to exemplify “the
New Martyrs”—the
class of martyrs of the modern age, killed by villains who try to hide their
hatred of the faith behind feigned motives.
Romero, one of only three bishops in history killed in church (the other
two died nearly a thousand years before), and the only one killed at the altar
celebrating Mass, may be the most prominent martyr of the New Millennium.
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| Economy flights to El Salvador for the beatification on VECA Airlines. |
Super Martyrio will continue to monitor developments
and provide a Friday update regarding the ongoing beatification plans. [Read my last update here.]
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