Beatification of Romero hailed by vast crowds

Some 300,000 people are expected to witness the beatification today of Archbishop Oscar Romero, whose swift elevation to the altars has been pushed by Pope Francis.

Ceremonies were due to start yesterday evening with a torchlight procession through the streets of San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, and a Mass celebrated by the Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, chairman of the Pope’s “C9” Council of Cardinals. This was to be followed by an all-night vigil.

The beatification itself will take place during a Mass in Salvador del Mundo (“Saviour of the World”) Square starting at 10 a.m. local time (4 p.m. GMT), at which the Pope’s representative, Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, will read the official decree.
Romero, the late Archbishop of San Salvador, was a fearless defender of the poor. He was ­assassinated by a right-wing death squad while celebrating Mass in 1980 as his country began to descend into civil war. The current left-wing Government, which came to power in 2009, has worked with the bishops in organising today’s ceremony. In 2010, President Mauricio Funes issued an official apology for Romero’s murder.

At a press conference in San Salvador on Monday, church spokesman Mgr Rafael Urrutia said that among the 300,000 ­people expected to attend were seven cardinals, 90 bishops – including all the Salvadorean hierarchy – and more than 1,000 priests. Seven heads of state are expected to attend, including the presidents of Ecuador and Panama. The bishops of England and Wales will be represented by Bishop Emeritus John Rawsthorne, former chairman of the charity Cafod.

From San Salvador, Julian Filochowski, director of the Romero Trust, referred to concern that local presentations of Romero by the Church and local media “portray a tepid, bland and watered-down version of Romero rather than the martyr for justice”. A particular target for criticism has been the slogan that appears on the official publicity for the beatification, “Romero, martyr for love”. However another official poster adds: “For the poor, for justice, for his people, for the Church, for Jesus Christ.”

Among the initiatives commemorating the beatification is a play, Romero – Path of Justice, which is to be performed in a local theatre and in the chapel of the Divine Providence Hospital, where Romero was murdered.
(See Robert Ellsberg, page 4.)