BEATIFICATION OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO,
MAY 23, 2015
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For eight years
between 2006 and 2015, this blog offered an annual “beatification outlook” for Archbishop Romero for each
particular year but, after he was beatified in May of last year, this year I
offer the very first canonization
outlook, trying to assess the likelihood that the “Blessed Romero” will become
“Saint Romero” this year. I have to say
that despite a lot of interest and the seeds already in the field, the chances
that they will blossom this year seem
low. On the positive side, if I was
looking at the next two years, I would say that the chances of a canonization
in that framework are pretty high.
[See also: Top stories of the beatification year]
[See also: Top stories of the beatification year]
Let’s look at
the reasons why. The primary reason has
to do with the way that the Salvadoran Church wants to canonize Romero. They want to have the canonization ceremony
in El Salvador, so that many Salvadorans can attend. El Salvador is a poor country, and if the
canonization ceremony is in the Vatican, it is unlikely that many Salvadorans
would be able to attend, and certainly not the poorest ones whom Romero
defended. Additionally, the Salvadoran
Church wants Pope Francis to lead the ceremony, just as he would if it happened
in Rome. Accordingly, the timing has to
work for the Pope to make a trip to El Salvador. Finally, the Salvadoran Church wants the
Romero canonization to coincide—in the same ceremony—with the beatification of
Fr. Rutilio Grande. Accordingly, the Church would need to coordinate checking
off all the requirements of both causes simultaneously and getting to the
finish line at the same time, and this can be tricky. Herein lies most of the explanation why it
will likely not happen this year: there needs to be coordination and slack left
in the process to allow both causes to catch up with one another in case one
falls behind the other.
But there are
other reasons, too. The second reason
the Romero canonization-Grande beatification probably won’t happen in 2016 is
that there is a feeling, apparently shared by Pope Francis, that the time may
not be ripe for the grace of such an event, given the deplorable gang violence
facing Salvadoran society and perhaps also given a developing sex abuse crisis
facing the Salvadoran Church. In a
speech to Salvadoran bishops and lay persons last fall, Pope Francis stated that
he would like to see the Church take the gift it already has received through
Romero’s beatification and use it to generate goodwill and bring about the
transformation of El Salvador. Perhaps it makes sense to allow some time for
that to happen.
Finally, a
third reason the canonization and beatification will probably not happen this
year is the recency of the Romero beatification, a huge Latin American event in
San Salvador, which cost a lot of money to organize, and took a lot of work and
behind-the-scenes effort to organize. It
may simply be too soon to do it all over again, simply from an organizational
perspective.
All this is not
to say that we cannot make significant progress this year. Along those lines, I would not be surprised
to see the martyrdom of Fr. Grande receive Vatican approval sometime this year,
and three miracles attributed to Romero have already been forwarded to the
Vatican—one of those could be approved this year. But I believe that any ceremony would
probably take place next year—the 100th anniversary of Romero’s birth.
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