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JUBILEE YEAR for the CENTENNIAL of BLESSED
ROMERO, 2016 — 2017
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| Poster citing Romero about the poor: ‘in them is the call of the Holy Spirit.’ Source photo courtesy Canonization Office. |
Many Catholics
will be awaiting the announcement of the date and place for the canonization of
Archbishop Oscar Romero and other saints being made by the Vatican this
Saturday, May 19, after a consistory for that purpose with the Pope and his
cardinals. But Ground Zero for Romero’s followers will be the Crypt of the
Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador, which contains his Tomb, and where
the faithful at the urging of the secular group Cultura Romeriana will hold a vigil beginning Friday night, until the
consistory at the Vatican, which begins at 10 a.m. Roman time—barely 2
o'clock in the morning in San Salvador.
What: Mass & Vigil
for Blessed Romero Canonization Announcement
When: Friday,
May 18, beginning at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Crypt
of the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador
On Thursday, May 17, Cultura Romeriana announced that the vigil would begin with Holy Mass presided over by San Salvador Archbishop Jose Luis Escobar Alas at 8 on Friday. That same day (Thursday) the Archdiocese issued a communiqué calling its parishes to organize vigils like Cultura Romeriana’s. The vigil has
been set out as a parallel to—and a preview of—the vigil of Pentecost, which
will take place in the Cathedral on Saturday night. It is clear from the
comments of several people familiar with the preparations that the event will
have the flavor of a popular party, with tamales and coffee for the
participants, as well as readings and reflections on the first Salvadoran
saint.
The proximity
of the announcement to the Feast of Pentecost on Sunday colors the spiritual
tone of this time. The Vigil in the Crypt will begin on the 43rd anniversary of
the publication of then Bishop Romero’s first pastoral letter, which was
entitled "The Holy Spirit in the Church," and which was published on
May 18, 1975 for Pentecost. The announcement regarding Romero's canonization
will come on the Saturday of the vigil of Pentecost, just as his beatification
on May 23, 2015 was also on the Saturday of the vigil of Pentecost for that
year. For the vigil organizers, the Pentecostal context makes it seem like the
announcement about Romero's canonization comes from the Holy Spirit itself.
After the 2015 Pentecost
Mass, Romero's successor as Archbishop of San Salvador, Msgr. Escobar
Alas, related Romero to the Holy Spirit based
on a phrase in the decree of beatification, in which Pope Francis refers to Romero
as “Father of the Poor,” which according to Archbishop Escobar is a term used
to refer theologically to the Holy Spirit. In a commentary on this blog, Dr. Duane Arnold wrote
that it derives from the discourse of Christ in the synagogue in Luke 4:18 (“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he has anointed me to proclaim good news (euangelion) to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed...”).
All this recalls
a phrase used by Romero himself: that “The
Church cannot be deaf to the pleas of the poor and needy, because in them is
the call of the Holy Spirit” (Orientación 4.032, 5).
The vigil in
the Crypt strikes us as a brilliant and prophetic gesture. Veni Creator Spiritus!
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| Cultura Romeriana poster with event details. |
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