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JUBILEE YEAR for the CENTENNIAL of BLESSED
ROMERO, 2016 — 2017
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| Logo of this year's Romero pilgrimage to the town of his birth. |
#BlessedRomero #Beatification
Three months
away from the event, the Salvadoran Church has announced the activities that
will take place in El Salvador parallel to the canonization of Archbishop Oscar
Romero, which will take place in Rome.
The “spiritual preparation”
commences now; in August, the Church will organize the second large pilgrimage
along the “Way of Romero” to visit his hometown for the 101st anniversary of his
birth. In October, there will be activities to follow the canonization
simultaneously, and in thanksgiving for it.
“Such an occasion cannot be relegated to an
isolated event that passes after the celebration,” said San Salvador Archbishop
Jose Luis Escobar Alas, “because it is an ecclesial event that is bringing about a
real renewal movement in the spirituality of the Catholic Church, which
impels us to return to the sources of
revelation and leads us to a
commitment to transform the temporal realities by bringing them closer to the
will of God.”
The Catholic
hierarch announced several measures to promote the "spiritual preparation" of Salvadorans, among the standouts, “that on Mondays the Holy Mass be celebrated
as a mandatory memorial to the martyr Oscar Arnulfo Romero (remembering the day
of his martyrdom),” from this Monday, July 16, recurring every Monday until
the canonization. Among other activities, the Archbishop called for
pilgrimages, “community, family and
personal Rosaries,” and Holy Hours of Romeroesque inspiration.
In August, the
Church will celebrate Romero’s birthday ahead of time. His birthday is August
15, but the pilgrimage to Ciudad Barrios, his hometown, will take place between
August 2 and 4, with the motto “Walking
with St. Romero to Build Peace.” The pilgrimage will be accompanied by
three symbols: The Cross, the image of Romero and the image of the Virgin Queen
of Peace. This event precedes the patronal festival of San Salvador, which
commemorates the Transfiguration of the Lord, and will launch the effort to
prepare the way to canonization in every parish. The registration fee is $1
plus $5 for the pilgrim’s kit, available in each diocese of El Salvador.
The pilgrimage
will begin with a send-off Mass in the Metropolitan Cathedral and will be organized
in its first stage by the Archdiocese of San Salvador. This first phase will
culminate in San Rafael Cedros with a Mass presided over by Cardinal Gregorio
Rosa Chavez. The second phase will be organized by the dioceses of San Vicente
and Zacatecoluca, and takes up from San Rafael Cedros to Chapeltique. The third
and final phase will begin in Chapeltique and end with the celebration of a
Mass of Thanksgiving in the Parish of Bl. Oscar Romero of Ciudad Barrios
(formerly called San Pedro) on August 4.
In October, the
Church is preparing to facilitate the participation of the faithful in a
ceremony that will take place 6,000 miles away. “We know that the vast majority will not be able to go and that is why
the Canonization will also be lived here,” said Archbishop Escobar. “We have established”,
explained the hierarch, “that in all the
temples of the country there will be vigils, not only in the parishes, but in
all the temples, so that on the night of October 13, starting about 9 or 10 at
night, people gather and begin activities such as singing, reflections,
meditations, prayer, presentations ... there will have to be coffee and bread,
there must be, God will provide.” The canonization will take place in Rome,
at 2 am in El Salvador.
In addition to
the vigils in the parishes, where the faithful will watch the ceremony on
television, “there will also be a great
concentration in the Divine Savior of the World Plaza, for those who want to
participate in a larger communal event,” said the archbishop. Finally, the
following Sunday, October 21, there will be a Mass of Thanksgiving in the
Metropolitan Cathedral, concelebrated by all the Salvadoran bishops, and by
other bishops of the region, “like, for
example, the Archbishop of Panama and other bishops have told us they will be
here.”
Finally, Archbishop
Escobar revealed that the Salvadoran bishops have written a new letter inviting
Pope Francis to visit El Salvador on his way to Panama for World Youth Day in
January 2019, and that “the Holy Father is
paying close attention to the letter that we sent him” and “is studying the possibility of coming.”
Although he clarified, to avoid misunderstandings caused by enthusiasm, that “we have no date, not even any security [that
it will happen], but we do have a lot of
hope.”
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