BEATIFICATION OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO,
MAY 23, 2015
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“The beatification of Monseñor Romero, Bishop
and Martyr, is a celebration of joy and brotherhood,” said Cardinal Angelo
Amato in his beatification
homily. In fact, we have seen how the beatification ceremony—so splendid
and majestic—placated the tensions
that arose in the days before the event: tensions between activists and church
people, among historic followers of Romero and admirers of recent vintage,
among progressive Catholics and those of a more traditionalist bent. The
beatification held on the weekend of Pentecost forged a truce of sorts within
the church, with the various factions apparently unified around Romero; their diversities
harmonious as the colors of the famous solar halo that crowned the celebration.
But beyond a
symbolic peace, the beatification was “a
turning point for Catholicism,” according to Vatican observer John Allen Jr., and “arguably the most
important beatification of the early 21st century” because it consolidated
a settlement of historical debates within the Church. Similarly, columnist Ross Douthat of the New York Times
believes that “it’s fair to look at the
progress of the slain archbishop’s cause—which was originally unblocked, not by
Francis, but by Benedict—as a case study in how Catholicism often unpolarizes itself
after an era of division.” Both Allen and Douthat highlight the fact that
the joint action of the “conservative” Pope Benedict and the “liberal” Pope Francis,
gave impetus to the beatification.
As explained by
Allen, the agreement that the beatification of Archbishop Romero formalizes is
a Catholic social doctrine that excludes the most strident currents of
liberation theology, but accepts and embraces its moderate vision. “If ‘liberation
theology’ means fighting poverty and struggling for justice, the answer is yes;
if it means armed Marxist rebellion and class struggle, it’s no.”
A book
published in the wake of the beatification, Religious
Responses to Violence (Notre Dame University Press, 2015), recognizes the
Romero beatification as the seal of approval to such understanding, and goes
further to say that it was Romero’s martyrdom that gave rise to that
arrangement. According Virginia Garrard-Burnett in the book, Archbishop Romero’s
martyrdom became an exemplary model for committed clergy, who had to account for
Romero’s total repudiation of armed insurrection, and his constant interpellation
to nonviolence. On the other hand, his execrable assassination exposed the
ignoble face of violence, and by contrast the virtue and moral superiority of the
victim of violence who allows himself to be immolated without succumbing to the
temptation to respond with force. Of course, there was also pressure and
correction from the Vatican that channeled the liberationist movement toward
moderation.
It was Pope
Benedict, the great promoter of corrections to Liberation Theology during the eighties,
who unblocked the Romero cause, and it was Angelo Amato, a co-signer of the
doctrinal correction to liberation theologian Jon Sobrino, who presided over
the beatification ceremony. And while it is true that the arrival of Pope Francis
accelerated the thaw between the Vatican and Liberation Theology, Benedict had
already paved the way with the appointment of Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the great
friend of the “father” of the movement, as prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith.
In his last Pentecost homily, Benedict said that “unity
can only exist as a gift of God’s Spirit.” In fact, said the now emeritus pontiff,
“This is what happened at Pentecost.
Where there had been division and alienation, unity and understanding were born.”
During the Romero beatification,
Cardinal Amato said that “Romero is not a
symbol of division, but of peace, of harmony, of fraternity.” His beatification “is a gift of the Holy Spirit for the Church and for the noble nation of
El Salvador.”
It is the
gift of a beatification celebrated on Pentecost weekend.
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