Salvadoran clergy hopeful for canonization of Archbishop
Romero
By Edgardo AyalaCatholic News
Service
SAN SALVADOR (CNS) -- Salvadoran clergy are hopeful
that the canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero, murdered while celebrating
Mass March 24, 1980, during El Salvador's civil war, will move forward under the
church's first Latin American pope.
"We are in the best of circumstances.
The time is ripe for a final verdict," Auxiliary Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez of
San Salvador told Catholic News Service, referring to Pope Francis, who
as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina,
until he was elected pope March 13.
The media, he said, have reported
about the admiration that the new pontiff has for Archbishop Romero and the
conviction that the martyred prelate should be canonized.
"The stars are
aligned (for Romero's canonization), but I insist that we should not rush. God
has its time and that time will come," Bishop Rosa Chavez added.
The
canonization process for Archbishop Romero began in 1994. The case is being
studied by the Vatican's Congregation for Saints' Causes.
Msgr. Jesus
Delgado also told reporters that in 2007 he spoke with Cardinal Bergoglio, who
told him that if he were the pope, the beatification and canonization of the
slain archbishop would the first thing he would pursue.
In another
meeting in 2010, Msgr. Delgado said Cardinal Bergoglio recalled what he said
about Archbishop Romero in 2007, but added that the problem was that he would
never become pope.
When Cardinal Bergoglio was elected pope, Msgr.
Delgado told local media it was "a wonderful surprise," and that he thought it
was time that Archbishop Romero became a saint.
Archbishop Romero was a
staunch defender of the poor and criticized the human rights violations of the
military junta that ruled El Salvador beginning in October 1979. His
outspokenness led to his assassination.
Regardless of how the
canonization advances, "the Salvadoran people have named him saint long ago,"
Bishop Rosa Chavez said of Archbishop Romero.
END
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