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JUBILEE YEAR for the CENTENNIAL of BLESSED
ROMERO, 2016 — 2017
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| Empty canvas on which new Romero image for the San Salvador Cathedral will be created in connection with his expected canonization. Photo courtesy B. Hernandez. |
The signs
that 2018 will be “the year” of Blessed Oscar A. Romero continue to pile up.
One of the most recent is the publication in his blog and on Twitter by postulator of the cause Archbishop
Vincenzo Paglia, of information originally published in
this blog on the very
subject, suggesting a swift conclusion of the process. [See also Prediction: “Saint Romero,” 2018.]
Asked about
the canonization prospects, Salvadoran Cardinal Gregorio
Rosa Chavez, visiting Barcelona, Spain, responded: “We expect that the news will
arrive at any moment.” According to several sources, Cardinal Rosa
Chavez added that “the Holy Father is impatient for the day to arrive,” and described
the process as a “spiritual earthquake” that awaits his country, insisting that
El Salvador is “discovering” Archbishop Romero after his beatification in May
2015.
If what is
coming is a “spiritual earthquake”, then Bellini Hernandez, a member of a
secular group called Cultura Romeriana
in San Salvador, experienced a bit of a foreshock when she arrived at the
Metropolitan Cathedral last Sunday and discovered that the images of Romero
that had adorned the temple had been removed. Disturbed by the fact, because
Cultura Romeriana had donated one of the images, the parishioner decided to
question Fr. Francisco Gongora, the pastor of the Cathedral.
“He answered that it is because they are
preparing a large altarpiece and likewise a large picture of Archbishop Romero,”
says Hernandez, “on the occasion of the
canonization of Archbishop Romero.”
Contacted by Super
Martyrio, Father Gongora confirmed the plans. “I proposed to the archbishop to make a place in the cathedral dedicated
to Archbishop Romero, and since we do not have a chapel, I drafted some plans
for him on how to make an altarpiece in line with the background of the
presbytery wherein he [Romero] represents the Good Shepherd who walks with his people
and that’s how it will be done,” he says.
The Cathedral
has undergone a small restoration. Last year, local media reported a donation
from Taiwan to help with the process. “Not
only has Taiwan donated; there are around eight companies that have donated to allow
us to restore the Cathedral,” says the pastor. “All the money that has been received has been fully invested in the
works of the Cathedral including the change of sewage pipes and the waterproofing
of the interior roof which was in bad shape. In addition, the Crypt has not
only been painted but we have also invested through donations from the
different companies in the floor, to crystallize it; in the same way the
entrance to the Crypt has been decorated with a false ceiling and lighting,”
he summarizes.
As a
footnote, not everyone is satisfied with these measures. On Facebook, Fr.
Héctor Fernando Martínez Espinoza, Vicar General of the Diocese of Tarahumara,
Mexico, expressed consternation at the removal of Romero’s images. “We believe that if you are going to put some
other image of Romero, you could in the meantime, not remove the picture from
Cultura Romeriana, since it is the only explicit reference in the cathedral
temple,” the priest wrote from Mexico.
Father Gongora dismisses the criticism, asserting that “the Church is hierarchical, not democratic,”
and that the decision has been vetted and deserves to be respected, “because I
respect each diocesan territory and therefore I ask respect for mine.”
The Cathedral
prepares for a canonization, but El Salvador must prepare for a “spiritual
earthquake” in which there will surely be many rumblings and murmurings about
the best way to receive and venerate the new saint.
