Santo subito! I wanted to draw your attention to one question answered by Pope Francis yesterday en route from Korea to Rome. The interview was transcribed by Gerard O’Connell, America’s Vatican correspondent, and later termed the official transcript by the Vatican. The Pope says definitively that the cause for canonization for Archbishop Oscar Romero is now «unblocked.» For the record, there are indeed many others I think should be canonized, including Dorothy Day, whose cause is underway. But this is good news.
Pope Francis: «The process was blocked in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ‘for prudence,’ it was said. Now it is unblocked and it is in the Congregation for Saints and follows the normal path of a process. It depends on how the postulators move, it’s very important to move in haste.
What I would like is to have clarified when there is martyrdom in ‘odium fidei’ [out of hate for the faith], whether it is for confessing the credo or for performing the works that Jesus commands us to do for our neighbor. This is a work of theologians that is being studied. Because behind him [Romero], there is Rutilio Grande and there are others. There are other that were also killed but are not at the same height as Romero.
This has to be distinguished theologically. For me, Romero is a man of God. He was a man of God but there has to be the process, and the Lord will have to give his sign [of approval]. But if He wishes, He will do so! The postulators must move now because there are no impediments.»
Fr. James Martin, SJ lives in New York.
