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JUBILEE YEAR for the CENTENNIAL of BLESSED
ROMERO, 2016 — 2017
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The Holy See announced on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 that
Pope Francis will gather the cardinals in a meeting to finalize the
canonization dates for several new saints, presumably including Archbishop
Oscar A. Romero, for whom he approved a miracle this year facilitating his being
raised to the altars. The meeting, called a consistory, will take place on
Saturday, May 19.
In other news,
the Honduran Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga has been quoted by the Spanish press saying that “Romero’s
canonization will be on October 21, in Rome, during the Synod of Bishops.”
That is one of three possibilities that had been discussed, and the one
that many, including this blog, had foreseen from the outset. If so, Abp. Romero
would be canonized alongside his ally Pope Paul VI, as well as other newly
authorized saints, including Vincenzo Romano, Francesco Spinelli and Maria
Caterina Kasper. Paul VI and Romero stand out among the group, both for their
stature and for the friendship between them.
The word of
the Honduran cardinal, leader of the council of cardinal advisors to the pope,
is very authoritative; however, it is not definitive in itself. We must await
further confirmations from high placed sources such as the Vatican Secretariat
of State, the postulator of the cause, the Salvadoran Church, and perhaps the
Salvadoran government—the
last two have been lobbying for the ceremony to be in El Salvador. Catholic News Service correspondent Rhina Guidos reported that she asked San Salvador Jose Luis Escobar Alas, visiting Washington D.C. with other Salvadoran bishops, about the rumored date of the canonization and he replied that nothing is official until the Pope says it is. Later, during homily at an area Church, Archbishop Escobar conceded that the canonization will “probably” be in Rome and “probably” at end of October.
In summary, Brendan Walsh, Editor of The Tablet recapped the developments well when he said, “No formal announcement yet but the odds are dramatically shortening on the canonization of Oscar Romero being on Sunday 21 October, alongside Pope Paul VI: two saints of Vatican II, the martyr and the reformer.” Vatican expert Luis Badilla also expressed satisfaction with the linkage. “To tell the truth, from a Latin American point of view it is a very happy coincidence,” he wrote, adding that it was “full of meaning because the event coincides with the 50th anniversary of the General Conference of Latin American Episcopates inaugurated and presided by Paul VI” in Medellin, Colombia. “It should also be added, and it can not be ignored, that there was always a human, affective and fraternal and sincere pastoral relationship, between Archbishop Romero and Paul VI, who named him bishop—an expression of what Pope Montini felt for all the churches and peoples of Latin America,” Badilla wrote.
We will continue to monitor developments and report them here.
We will continue to monitor developments and report them here.
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