BEATIFICATION OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO,
MAY 23, 2015
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Site of the new, future parish. |
After the
announcement that the Diocese of San Bernardino, California, in the United
States will build a new parish to be called “Blessed Oscar Romero”—the first in
the US (and probably in the world) to bear the name of the Salvadoran martyr
bishop—we ask ourselves how the process by which the Church integrates Romero
into its life of holiness and devotion is progressing. Super Martyrio has learned that various California dioceses are considering
requests to allow the veneration of Romero in their jurisdictions, where many Salvadorans
immigrants now reside. But “he has not
been registered in any particular calendar,” according to an official at
the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
contacted by Super Martyrio.
That has not
stopped several tributes to the Salvadoran martyr, particularly in Latin
America. For example, on the day in which Romero was beatified, a chapel
bearing his name was inaugurated in the parish of San Juan Bautista, in Rio
Branco, Uruguay. The Bishop of Melo, Msgr. Heriberto Bodeant, presided over the
ceremony. Before Romero’s beatification in May, this chapel was called the
Chapel of the Latin Americans Martyrs, but the name was changed in honor of
Romero as soon as his holiness was officially recognized. Similarly, in
Santiago de Chile there is an Oscar Romero Chapel in the Cristo Evangelizador y
Solidario parish. In Canto Grande, Peru (in the outskirts of Lima) there is an
Oscar Romero Chapel in the parish of El Señor de la Esperanza (Diocese of
Chosica). Meanwhile, In El Salvador, the land of Blessed Romero, the church
promulgated liturgical revisions introducing Romero’s name alongside the
ancient martyrs and saints mentioned in the canon of every Mass celebrated in the country, during the
Eucharistic prayers.
The Riverside
County (California) Press-Telegram
has confirmed that the Romero Parish in Eastvale, San Bernadino, will be the
first among the 17,000 parishes in the United States under the name “Oscar
Romero.” But the Romero Parish is only in the planning stages. The place where
it will be built is still an empty 10 acre lot these days (photo). A fire station
will be built nearby. When the new faith community is inaugurated on November
29, the first Sunday of Advent, they will probably celebrate Mass in the
auditorium of the high school in the neighborhood. The diocese does not yet
have estimates of the cost of building a new church, or a date it expects it to
be completed.
Reactions to
the news have been positive. A church spokesman told reporters that the diocese
has been flooded with phone calls, emails and Facebook messages after the
announcement.
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