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JUBILEE YEAR for the CENTENNIAL of BLESSED
ROMERO, 2016 — 2017
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This note will
address some trivia relating to the canonization of Archbishop Romero in
October of this year. This is not to detract from the solemnity of this great
ecclesial event, but to take in all at once certain secondary—and, maybe, even in and of themselves, superficial—facts, that nevertheless
help us to understand the significance of the occasion. I have organized my thoughts into
seven factoids, and three things to watch during the ceremony.
Seven pieces of
trivia
1. Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Romero will be
the first two saints to be both beatified and canonized by Pope Francis.
The two stages have been completed under the same pontificate; in fact, Montini and
Romero—the master
and the disciple—have
walked together in the last stretch of their processes, receiving the approvals
from the medical experts, theologians, cardinals and bishops, pope, consistory
and now canonization, side by side in each successive stage. They are arguably two pillars of this pontificate.
2. This will be the first time that a pope
(Paul VI) will be canonized alongside a saint who is not also a pope (Romero
and the others). In previous cases in which the popes have been canonized,
they have been canonized alone, or alongside another pope, as in the
canonization of John Paul II with John XXIII in 2014, and the beatification of
John XXIII along with Pius IX in the year 2000. In fact, the canonization will represents a cross section of the entire Church, because a pope, an archbishop, two priests, two nuns and a lay young man will be raised to the altars.
3. Archbishop Romero will be the first
post-conciliar martyr to be canonized by the Church. This factor cannot be overlooked when
discussing the significance of “Saint Romero.” Other martyrs of the post-conciliar
period have been beatified (for
example, Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko), but Romero is the first to achieve the universal
cultus.
4. Archbishop Romero will be the first bishop
canonized in a synod of bishops. Setting aside the canonization of popes—because we recognize that popes are
bishops—this
will be the first time that a person whose highest rank achieved was that of
bishop has been canonized during a synod. Perhaps that is why Archbishop Romero
has received equal billing with Paul VI in the press: because they are both bishops.
5. Archbishop Romero will be the first saint
born in any Central American country; the twelfth born in Latin America. There
have been saints that are attributed to the two regions, but
born in other places.
6. Archbishop Romero will be the first alumnus
of the Pio-Latino College (for Latin American seminarians in Rome) to be proclaimed a
saint. We will have to see if this wins him the patronage of his alma mater.
7. Finally, Montini, Romero and the other October saints
are part of the first canonization of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu as
prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. This signals a changing
of the guard with respect to this ecclesial process.
Three queries
Now, three
aspects of the ceremony that have not been settled, which arouse my curiosity
and which I would identify as things to watch as the story plays out:
I. Will the Pope Emeritus attend?—Due to his fragility and advanced age, Benedict
XVI has greatly reduced his participation in such Church ceremonies. However,
it bears asking if the canonization of one of his predecessors, Pope Paul VI,
will draw him to St. Peter’s Square this time. The Pontiff Emeritus
participated in the double-canonization of John Paul II and John XXIII—and in the beatification of Paul VI. In
addition, Benedict was made archbishop and cardinal by Pope Montini, whom he
praised in his encyclical letter «Caritas In Veritate,» in
which he asserted that “Paul VI clearly
understood that the social question had become worldwide and he grasped the
interconnection between the impetus towards the unification of humanity and the
Christian ideal of a single family of peoples in solidarity and fraternity”
(CIV, 13).
II. Will Pope Francis speak Spanish?—The homiletic style for canonizations
varies a lot in the Francis pontificate: sometimes he does not even mention the
canonized saints, sometimes he mentions them in passing at the end, and
sometimes he has dedicated a good part of his homily to the figures being
raised to the altars. In previous canonizations carried out in Rome, the Pope has
spoken his homily in Italian; but in the first one he officiated in May 2013, in which he elevated to the
altars the Mexican Saint Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala and the Colombian Saint
Maria de Jesus Montoya Upegui, he said part of the homily in Spanish. This
time, it is expected that up to 5,000 Salvadorans will attend a canonization
with a lot of Latin American interest, so it will be interesting to see if the
Pope speaks to this audience in Spanish.
III. Will Pope Francis wear the Romero miter?—Leaving the most amusing question for last,
I wonder if the Pope will wear the Romero style miter sent to him by the Salvadoran Church
after the beatification. In fact, the Pope almost never breaks his custom of wearing
only miters with the simple linear design that has come to characterize him
since his days as an auxiliary bishop. In Kenya in 2015, he wore a miter with a tribal design. The Romeroesque miter has the same pattern
as the miter Francis usually wears, and it also bears Romero’s motto, which is
Jesuit in origin: “To Hear and Feel With
The Church.” Francis has never worn it, and if he is ever going to wear it,
this should be the most fitting occasion.
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