Romero the martyr is to be beatified on eve of Pentecost

ARCHBISHOP Oscar Romero is to be beatified in San Salvador on 23 May, the day before Pentecost, Italian media reported  on Wednesday, writes Christopher Lamb.

As The Tablet went to press, a news conference was taking place in El Salvador that was expected to confirm the date of the beatification ceremony for the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the postulator of Romero’s cause, travelled to the country this week to give details of the event, expected to take place outside in the Plaza El Salvador del Mundo (Divine Saviour Square).

Cardinal Angelo Amato, ­prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, is due to preside at the ceremony, which observers are predicting will be attended by one million people.

The current Archbishop of San Salvador, José Luis Escobar Alas, has said the venue is both practical in terms of space and is symbolic, as the Divine Saviour is the patron saint of the country.

In February, Pope Francis officially recognised Romero – hailed for standing against injustice in his country and assassinated by agents of the state while saying Mass in 1980 – as a martyr. He was ratifying a decision by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints which declared that Romero had been murdered in odium fidei (“in hatred of the faith”).

Meanwhile Cardinal Vincent Nichols is due to preach at the annual ecumenical service marking Romero’s martyrdom at St Martin-in-the-Fields, central London, next Saturday.

The following week, Fr Brian Pierce, a Dominican who has worked in Central America, will give talks about Romero in Edinburgh, York, London, Glasgow, Norwich and Oxford in a tour organised by the Archbishop Romero Trust.