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JUBILEE YEAR for the CENTENNIAL of BLESSED
ROMERO, 2016 — 2017
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| Abp. Leon Kalenga incenses relics of Blessed Oscar Romero. |
#BlessedRomero #Beatification
The departing
Nuncio to El Salvador Archbishop Leon Kalenga Badikebele
(reassigned as Apostolic Nuncio in Argentina) reiterated his commitment to
obtaining the recognition of Oscar Romero as a “Doctor of the Church” in his
farewell address to the Salvadoran Church hierarchy, including all the bishops,
plus clergy and religious of the country. [VIDEO.] Relatedly, in his remarks on Saturday,
April 28, Archbishop Kalenga hinted that Romero’s canonization would be in Rome
in October, emphasizing the possibility that Pope Francis could go to “the Saint’s
tomb” in a lightning visit to San Salvador on his way to Panama for the World
Youth Day in January 2019.
Archbishop Kalenga
said that the quadripartite “stealth
mission” he would leave his successor includes: (1) the canonization cause for
Archbishop Romero; (2) the canonization cause for Father Rutilio Grande; (3) the cause for Archbishop Romero as a “Doctor
of the Church”; and (4) a cause for the collective recognition of the “holy martyrs of El Salvador”.
According to
the Congolese prelate, who is concluding his five-year term as the pope’s representative
in El Salvador, he expects his successor to be appointed swiftly because he
will be required to lead the preparations for Romero’s canonization; its final
details will be set in a consistory between the pope and the Cardinals
scheduled for Saturday, May 19. During the farewell Mass, Kalenga was
recognized as someone who has “worked
tirelessly” for Romero's canonization cause, including through his efforts
to unify all groups inspired by Romero in order to avoid a “war” between the various interests.
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| Kalenga and his “Friends of Romero.” Photo courtesy: Cultura Romeriana. |
The dialogue on Romero as a Doctor was launched by Fr. Robert Pelton at a conference at Notre Dame University in the United States in March 2017. Two months later, in May 2017, Archbishop Kalenga took up the project and made it his own. During his homily for the opening of the 36th Assembly of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) held in El Salvador, Kalenga, a canon law doctor, said he would promote the recognition of Romero as doctor of the Universal Church, “spontaneously and effusively drawing a great and enormous applause” from the assembly, in which delegates from 22 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean participated, including the United States and Canada, according to a CELAM report.
In a session in March of this year following up on
the idea, Fr. Steve Payne, a scholar of St. Therese of Lisieux as Doctor of
the Church, commented on what needs to be done to advance the case for Romero.
In his presentation, Fr. Payne explained that the recognition originally had a
liturgical value to give greater importance to the feasts of certain saints in
the Church’s calendar. However, Romero, as a martyr, would already have a
liturgical dignity superior to that of doctors, said the cleric, so obtaining a
doctorate for Romero could be seen as akin to “awarding an Olympic silver medal to someone who has already won the
gold for the same performance.”
Therefore,
the first hurdle to overcome, according to Fr. Payne, would be to establish
that, as a martyr, Romero is not disqualified from consideration. Father Payne highlighted
the evolution of the concept of doctors of the Church, beginning with the first
selections, who were “Fathers of the Church”—founders of important communities or
branches of Christianity. Later that mold was broken when St. Thomas Aquinas
and St. Bonaventure were recognized without having lived in the patristic era,
and more recently with the recognition of women and saints who had no formal
theological training, such as St. Therese of Lisieux, explained Fr. Payne. Judging
by this evolution of the concept, what matters is the importance of a person’s
teachings, and not any other characteristic of their holiness, “so even a martyr in whom the Church
recognizes eminent teaching can be elevated to the doctorate, notwithstanding
the historical practice otherwise,” concluded an analysis published in the
influential Jesuit magazine Civiltà
Cattolica by Fr. Giandomenico Mucci in 1997.
From this
perspective, the challenge would be to establish that Romero meets the
requirements of eminens doctrina
(eminent doctrine), according to norms established by the Vatican in the 1980s,
including in the apostolic constitution «Pastor
Bonus» of St. John Paul II (1988). In order to be named a doctor,
candidates should offer something original that sheds new light on divine
revelation, their writings should “have
exercised considerable influence on the thought of the church” over a
considerable period of time, their teaching should have both contemporary
pastoral relevance and perennial value, and they should be more than just “a tireless catechist or preacher, a great
ascetic and servant of the poor, or the primary promoter of an important
religious movement or devotion,” Fr. Payne related.
The case for
the eminent doctrine of Romero has been summarized by the Chilean doctor in
Philosophy and political analyst, Alvaro Ramis. “The theological, pastoral, and ethical proposal has universal value
beyond the time in which he lived,” Ramis remarked at a conference in
Santiago last year—“it has a value in the
history of all humanity because in Romero there is a movement from orthodoxy
(attachment to doctrine) to orthopraxis (the application of good doctrines):
Archbishop Romero makes evident in his own daily practice that which pertains
to his faith.”
While it
seems that the time may be too little to establish that Romero has had significant
influence “for a considerable period”, his promoters are betting that Romero’s extensive
legacy and influence will eventually be sufficient to fulfill the requirements
and, perhaps, Pope Francis could even declare that Romero is a pastoral example
for the Church when he canonizes him.
In his
parting words, Archbishop Kalenga commented that Romero's followers will
celebrate his canonization regardless of “whether
the Pope does it here [in El Salvador],
in Rome, or on the moon.”
It might also
be said that they will seek to promote him for Doctor of the Church, regardless
of whether the process is instantaneous, or extends to decades or even
centuries.
