Pope Francis has recognised several victims of military repression in 1980s Guatemala as martyrs, moving them a step closer to being declared saints.
José María Gran Cirera, two other priests and seven lay persons assassinated in Guatemala, between 1980 to 1992, were recognised as martyrs in a decree of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, promulgated on the 24 January.
José María was born on the 27th of April, in 1945, Spain, and was ordained in 1966. Moving to Guatemala in 1975 to work as a missionary in the diocese of Quiché, he ministered in the parishes of Santa Cruz; Zacualpa and in San Gaspar Chajul. On June 4th 1980 Jose Maria was shot dead along with his lay sacristan Domingo del Barrio Batz, whilst returning to Chajul on horseback after visiting remote villages of the parish.
José María worked in Quiche, a northern area of Guatemala where repression of the “campesinos”, poor tenant farmers, were particularly intense. The campesinos in Guatemala, largely Catholic and of the indigenous Maya people, were seen as subversive of the established order and as sympathisers with the anti-government guerrillas. Because of the role of the church in advocating for campesinos, government forces often attempted to destroy church organisations and even religious items during the civil war, fought from 1960 to 1996.
On 10 July, another priest of the same order, Fr. Faustina Villanueva, was assassinated whilst in his parish office, in Joyabaj, Quiche. On the 19 July the Bishop of Quiche diocese, Juan José Gerardi Conedera, narrowly avoided an ambush set for him by government troops. With only five priests remaining, Bishop Geradi then took the controversial decision to temporarily close the diocese, the first time such an action had occurred in Guatemala Catholicism’s 500 year history. Bishop Geradi, long considered a defender of Guatemala’s indigenous peoples, was himself assassinated in 1998.
Other martyrs recognised by the Vatican in the same announcement were three Capuchin friars from Spain, executed by anti-clerical groups in Manresa, Barcelona, during the Spanish Civil War. More than 7000 priests, nuns and religious brothers were murdered during the Spanish Civil War, estimated by some sources as amounting to 20 per cent of all vowed religious in the country.
The recognition of their martyrdom – that they were killed “In odium fidei”, in hatred of the faith, rather than for political or personal motives – means both groups are now on the path for beatification.
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