By Junno Arocho Esteves
ROME (CNS)
— While documentation regarding an alleged miracle attributed to the
intercession of Blessed Oscar Romero is being studied at the Vatican, there is
no date scheduled for his canonization, the archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, said.
“I
must say, in all sincerity, that there is no date. And we understand it well
because it involves a process. Blessed Romero’s cause is at a decisive phase
that is necessary for his canonization,” Archbishop Jose Luis Escobar Alas
said March 23 during a memorial Mass for Blessed Romero in Rome.
Archbishop
Escobar, along with the other bishops of El Salvador were making their “ad limina” visits to Rome and the
Vatican and anticipated
the 37th anniversary of Blessed Romero’s death with Mass at Rome’s Basilica of
Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Blessed
Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, was assassinated in 1980 while
celebrating Mass in the chapel of a local hospital one day after calling on the
government to end its violation of human rights against the population.
During the nearly
two hours Pope Francis spent with the bishops of El Salvador March 20, the
pontiff expressed “his warmth and affection” for Blessed Romero,
Archbishop Escobar told Catholic News Service after the Mass.
“He
told us that it would be very good if the places associated with Romero — his
relics, the place where he was killed and where he was born — would become
places of pilgrimage,” the archbishop said.
During his
homily, Archbishop Escobar thanked Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the
Pontifical Academy for Life and the official promoter of Blessed Romero’s sainthood
cause, for his work throughout canonical process.
The alleged
miracle involves a pregnant woman in El Salvador who was in in danger of dying,
Archbishop Paglia told CNS. “Several friends of this family prayed to
Blessed Oscar Romero. And in a short time, the baby was born and the mother is
well.”
Archbishop
Paglia also told CNS that officials at the Congregation for Saints’ Causes had
opened the documentation concerning the alleged miracle and would begin
studying it March 24.
The
congregation’s work, he added, is a delicate process, which involves looking at
the alleged miracle from both a “medical and theological
perspective.”
“I
hope that as soon as possible the results can be given. We cannot say how long
it will take,” he said. “If the results are positive, it will be
presented to the pope and he will decide on the canonization and the
date.”
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