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Thursday, December 28, 2017

Top 10 Romero news of 2017


JUBILEE YEAR for the CENTENNIAL of BLESSED ROMERO, 2016 — 2017


#BlessedRomero #Beatification
For the tenth and probably the last time, here is the customary review of the top ten developments relating to Oscar Romero from the year that is about to end.

1. The Centenary

The predominant event in relation to Romero this year has surely been the commemoration of the centenary of his birth. On the one hand, there is everything that has to do with the institutional observation of the milestone. The Latin American Bishops’ Conference (CELAM), the Episcopal Secretariat of Central America and Panama (SEDAC), the Catholic and Anglican churches in England, and other private churches in the United States and elsewhere have organized commemorative events. But aside from this, the one hundred years of Archbishop Romero has left us a new reflection on his legacy that looks beyond his martyrdom to a certain model of a new way to be a bishop, which takes on greater importance in the context of the teachings of the Bergoglio papacy. In a message to SEDAC, Pope Francis urged the bishops of the region to “follow the example of Blessed Oscar Romero, to commit yourselves more and more to ‘Feel and Cause to Feel with the Church,’ so that the love of Jesus and the commitment to solidarity with the poorest and most excluded grows among the faithful of your lands.”

2. The Miracle

The Vatican has been studying a miracle through the intercession of Blessed Romero to complete the process of his sanctification. It is “a woman from El Salvador who was in the seventh month of her pregnancy and was at risk of dying and losing her own child due to a serious complication,” Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the postulator of the case, explained in March. “Her friends prayed to Blessed Romero, and after a few weeks the woman not only did not die, but she was able to give birth to her son, the medical records, in the opinion of the doctors document, an extraordinary and miraculous event.” Sources in the Church say that the evaluation “seems to be going very well, proceeding in a good way.”

3. The Cardinal

On another front, the appointment to the college of Cardinal of auxiliary bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez, a “disciple” of Romero, has been recognized as a papal hommage to the legacy of the Salvadoran martyr.

4. The Holy Year

In relation to the Romero centenary, the Salvadoran Church decreed a jubilee year, which has entailed several activities, including a massive pilgrimage to the small town where Romero was born, tours of his relics inside and outside of El Salvador, and others.

5. «Ad limina apostolorum» Visit

The Salvadoran bishops visited Pope Francis in March. Naturally, the subject of Romero—both his canonization and the need to imitate him—dominated the meeting.

6. The doctoral proposal

The idea of ​​promoting Romero as one of the “doctors of the Church” arose from Fr. Robert Pelton, at the annual seminars organized by the University of Notre Dame in the USA.

7. The London indult

An unusual sign of Romero’s universality, even as a blessed, was the decision of the Congregation for Divine Worship to grant an “optional memorial” to celebrate Romero at Saint George’s Cathedral Southwark (London), every March 24.

8. New category of saints / Stanley Rother Beatification / Escobar Alas Pastoral letter

The introduction of a new path for canonization, the beatification of the American Stanley Rother as a martyr in Guatemala, and the pastoral letter of Archbishop Jose Luis Escobar Alas on the other martyrs of El Salvador, will all help contextualize Romero’s martyrdom.

9. Legal proceedings for Salvadoran war crimes

The advances—sometimes at a glacial pace—in the trials for the massacres of the Jesuits at Central American University in 1989, and of a thousand peasants in El Mozote in 1981, seem to disentangle a possible future of justice for war crimes that include the Romero assassination.

10. Patronage of the World Youth Day Panama 2019

It was confirmed that Blessed Romero will be, together with St. Martin of Porres, St. Rose of Lima, and others, one of the patron saints of the great Catholic youth meeting. The nomination will become more important when the canonization kicks into high gear.

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Finally, in the blog we can highlight the activity undertaken to promote the celebration of the centenary, with publication of notes in L’Osservatore Romano, CRUX, Emmanuel, and other forums. With great joy we can proclaim mission accomplished and with some sadness announce that 2018 will be the last year of this blog. Thank you all for your readership and for the friendship.

Prior Year Reports:

Top 10 of 2016
Top 10 of 2015
Top 10 of 2014
Top 10 of 2013
Top 10 of 2012
Top 10 of 2011
Top 10 of 2010
Top 10 of 2008
Top 10 of 2007
Roundup of 2006 (Spanish)

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