Pope Benedict, Not Francis, Unblocked Romero Sainthood Case

AP viaThe News Tribune ^ | 2/4/15 | Nicole Winfield

[marshmallow]

VATICAN CITY — The monsignor who spearheaded the saint-making process for El Salvador's slain Archbishop Oscar Romero said Wednesday it was Pope Benedict XVI — and not Pope Francis — who removed the final hurdle in the tortured, 35-year process.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia told reporters Benedict "gave the green light." Speaking a day after Francis declared that Romero died as a martyr for the faith, Paglia said Romero's beatification would likely be within a few months in San Salvador.

Paglia says Benedict told him on Dec. 20, 2012, the case had passed from the Vatican's doctrine office, where it had been held up for years over concerns about Romero's orthodoxy, to the saint-making office. From there it proceeded quickly, taking a mere two years for theologians, and then a committee of cardinals and bishops, to agree unanimously that Romero died as a martyr out of hatred for the faith.

Romero was gunned down on March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass in a hospital chapel in San Salvador. He had spoken out against repression by the army at the beginning of El Salvador's 1980-1992 civil war between the right-wing government and leftist rebels, a conflict that killed nearly 75,000 people.

[Alex Murphy]

[Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia] says Benedict told him on Dec. 20, 2012, the case had passed from the Vatican's doctrine office, where it had been held up for years over concerns about Romero's orthodoxy, to the saint-making office. From there it proceeded quickly, taking a mere two years for theologians, and then a committee of cardinals and bishops, to agree unanimously that Romero died as a martyr out of hatred for the faith. Romero was gunned down on March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass in a hospital chapel in San Salvador. He had spoken out against repression by the army at the beginning of El Salvador's 1980-1992 civil war between the right-wing government and leftist rebels, a conflict that killed nearly 75,000 people.

Was he gunned down for holding mass in the chapel, or for speaking out against the army?

[Salvation]

Interesting

[BlatherNaut]

Archbishop Paglia needs to get his stories straight:

“Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the cleric in charge of Óscar Romero’s sainthood cause, has announced that Pope Francis informed him during an audience on Saturday, April 20, that he was authorizing Archbishop Romero’s beatification process to advance. Paglia made the announcement at the end of a homily honoring the Italian bishop Antonio Bello, known as “Don Tonino,” who died in 1993. “This very day,” Paglia told the audience at the Cathedral of Molfetta (on Italy’s Adriatic coast), “day of the death of Don Tonino, the beatification cause of Msgr. Romero has been unblocked.” In addition to being the postulator or principal clergyman in charge of Archbishop Romero’s canonization, Paglia is the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, a major Vatican agency reporting to the Pope. His video-taped remarks, in Italian, are available on YouTube. No formal announcement has been made by the Vatican or by the San Salvador Archdiocese, though Salvadoran clerics have stated they believed Pope Francis would move swiftly to authorize resuming the process. Super Martyrio will monitor developments and report them here.”

http://polycarpi.blogspot.com/2013/04/pope-francis-greenlights-romero.html