St John Paul II and Benedict XVI ‘did not block cause’

Despite reports to the contrary, Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI were both keen to beatify Archbishop Oscar Romero, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the postulator of Romero’s sainthood cause, has revealed, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippit.

It had been believed that both popes had reservations about Romero’s beatification because they were concerned that he might have embraced elements of Marxism. But Paglia claims certain cardinals in Latin America and the Vatican blocked Romero’s cause. “The problem was that Romero did not only have friends in El Salvador. He also had many enemies, and information [from them] reached the Vatican”, Archbishop Paglia said in an interview in the Pontifical Mission Societies’ periodical Missio.