JUBILEE YEAR for the CENTENNIAL of BLESSED
ROMERO, 2016 — 2017
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In an interview
with the Italian Catholic journalist Alver Metalli, Msgr. Rafael Urrutia, the
vice-postulator of the Blessed Oscar A. Romero canonization cause, reveals
several details about the progress of the cause, which is focused on finding a
miracle worked through the intercession of the martyred bishop that will take
him to the altars. According to Urrutia, about ten people have come forward
with alleged Romero miracles, including people from Mexico and Ecuador, since
Romero was beatified last year. Among these are three whom the postulator, Archbishop
Vincenzo Paglia, decided to hold back for prudential reasons, and the most
recent case, which Urrutia hopes will be the miracle that definitively leads to
the first Salvadoran saint.
Msgr. Urrutia tells
us that the documentation regarding the miracle was sent to Rome in early
October of this year—one year after the abortive presentation of three cases
last year, whose caliber did not entirely convince Archbishop Paglia, who
decided not to introduce them. “We felt
it was best to avoid rejections,” said the postulator in July. But now, Msgr. Urrutia has the confidence that
he has found a cure that fulfills the requirements: “We hope that this time it works out. Two doctors whom we have consulted
believe that it is indeed a scientifically inexplicable occurrence,” he
says in the new interview.
If the quality
of the possible miracle is better than the cases presented before, the criteria
under which any miracle must be analyzed has also gone up after, this past
September, when the Vatican announced a reform of regulations for miracles during
the Roman phase, which seeks to ensure “transparency” and “scientific rigor” in
the corresponding processes. For example, under the new rules, to approve a
miracle, the experts must approve it with a majority of 5 out the 7. Before, it
was 5 plus 1, but this was modified under Benedict XVI and it may be 4 out of
6. (Art. 15). As another example, if a case is rejected in the initial ballot,
it cannot be presented again more than a total of three times. To examine the
alleged miracle again requires a consultation by new members.
Given these
considerations, what factors give assurance that the new miracle is up to the
new requirements? “I cannot talk about it
because it would reveal things that have been neither accepted nor approved,”
said Msgr. Urrutia. In that, he was very prudent, because the new rules impose a
duty of secrecy over the process of verifying miracles: “Medical experts, postulators and actors are bound to secrecy about
everything concerning the alleged miracle under review, especially if it is a
miracle involving a minor,” reads the regulation. (Art. 19).
The Salvadoran
Church has expressed its desire to see Blessed Romero canonized during the
Jubilee for the centenary of his birth—that is, between this year and the next.
Between the quality and quantity of possible miracles, that hope lives on ...
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