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JUBILEE YEAR for the CENTENNIAL of BLESSED
ROMERO, 2016 — 2017
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This
Wednesday, May 23 marks three years since Archbishop Oscar Romero was beatified, and less than a week after it was announced that he will be canonized by Pope
Francis on Sunday, October 14, during a synod of bishops at the Vatican. For a
bit of context, the time between Romero’s beatification and his canonization will
be similar in duration to the period he served as Archbishop of San Salvador from
1977 to 1980 (roughly three years).
As the third
anniversary of his beatification arrives, the news about his imminent
canonization has already circled the world and traversed El Salvador. In an
interview with Salvadoran television, documentary filmmaker Gianni Beretta (“The
Claim”) pointed out that the announcement “has been highlighted by all the newspapers
in Europe.”
In fact, the
news has been featured in media all over the world. Most of the headlines mention
Archbishop Romero along with Pope Paul VI in identifying who will be canonized.
In fact, several headlines even place Archbishop Romero above the great conciliar
pontiff (see image).
One of the articles
focused on Romero was the Wall Street
Journal’s report, written by its respected Vatican
correspondent Francis X. Rocca.
In the French
newspaper La Croix, Nicolas Senèze reports that during the consistory, when summarizing
the lives of the new saints (six in all), “Cardinal
Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, particularly
addressed Oscar Romero.”
The first
journalist to break the news of the canonization date was Joshua McElwee, in
the National Catholic Reporter. In
his report, published before the consistory was even
concluded, McElwee emphasizes that the announcement “represents the culmination of one of the clearest turnabouts of
Francis' nearly five-year papacy.”
In the
British Catholic newspaper The Tablet,
Christopher Lamb wrote that “Francis regards both Paul VI and Romero as guiding lights for the
contemporary church.” He added that the two saints “might also be described as two pillars of his pontificate.”
Other
journalists brought other points of view. On the Italian site Il Sismografo, Luis Badilla commented that the announcement came on the
same day of the funeral of Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, for many
years “a tenacious and rigid opponent”
of Romero and his canonization process. In El Bolivia’s El Mundo, the emphasis was on the canonization announcement for
Nazaria Ignacia March, born in Spain, but also considered the first Bolivian
saint, because she lived a long time in that country.
Finally, the
news has naturally made the largest waves in El Salvador. The local Church has
tried to harness the interest to call the faithful to a deep reflection. In a statement, the current Archbishop of San
Salvador challenged his flock that the canonization “lead us to overcome the causes of [gang-related] violence [that plagues the nation], the grave poverty of so many of our
brothers and sisters, social exclusion, corruption and impunity, so that the
peace for which Archbishop Romero sacrificed his life becomes a reality for our
people.”
That would be
the greatest miracle that “Saint Romero of the World” could obtain for his
country.
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