Thursday, April 28, 2016

St. Romero at the next Synod of Bishops?


 
BEATIFICATION OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO, MAY 23, 2015
 

 

Blessed Romero (3rd from left), with St. John Paul II at the Vatican.




#BlessedRomero #MartyrOfMercy

Reports that Pope Francis is considering dedicating not just his next encyclical, but perhaps the next Synod of Bishops, to issues of war and peace raises the prospect that such a synod could coincide with a future Romero canonization.  Pope Paul VI, the author of Humanae Vitae was beatified in connection with the 2014 Synod, and the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux were canonized in connection with the 2015 Synod, due to their connection to the family issues in play at those synods.  Who best to showcase the church’s reaction to war and peace than the archbishop who became a martyr while trying to stem a civil war in the late twentieth century?


According to the Italian news agency ANSA:

The Pope would like to dedicate the next Synod of Bishops to the theme of peace. After the topic of the family, on which Francis entrusted the discussion during the last two Synods that led to the formulation of the Amoris Laetitia document, it is the topic of universal peace — ANSA has learned — that is most dear to the pontiff, who would like it discussed in the next Synodal assembly, involving the world’s bishops. The topic was discussed on 18 and 19 April in the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod, in the presence of the Pope who attended throughout.

(English translation via Inside The Vatican).

Archbishop Romero was beatified in May 2015.  The church is gathering evidence of miracles worked through his intercession to pave the way for his canonization, in hopes that it could take place on or before 2017, the centennial of Romero’s birth.  Such a timeframe could also coincide with the next synod, which has not yet been formally scheduled.

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