Mission World - July 2018

Oscar Romero to be recognised as a saint of the Universal Church

Photo: Felton Davis, 17-05 06 Oscar Romero, www.flickr.com/photos/ felton-nyc, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

A consistory of cardinals took place in the Vatican in May during which the canonisation of six new saints was officially announced.

Of those six names, the two best known figures are Pope Paul VI and the assassinated Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero. The two men will be proclaimed saints on October 14 during the Synod of Bishops on Young People.

Romero was shot dead on March 24, 1980 as he was saying Mass in the cancer hospital in El Salvador where he had chosen to live. In his three years as archbishop he had become an outspoken voice for the poorest people of his country, caught up in a conflict between the military government and guerilla groups that claimed tens of thousands of civilian lives.

Today, Romero is widely acclaimed as a saint and martyr across the Christian world and beyond. Last year the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, preached about him at a special Evensong in Westminster Abbey, attended by leaders of many faith groups in the United Kingdom. The service included a new anthem written by Scottish composer James MacMillan to mark the centenary of Romero’s birth.

Julian Filochowski is chair of the Archbishop Romero Trust, set up to promote greater knowledge of the saint’s life and legacy, as well as to support human rights efforts in Latin America today. He says the people of El Salvador canonised Oscar Romero in their hearts soon after his assassination. In 2015, he notes, the local Church celebrated Romero’s beatification in San Salvador, “one of the highest profile non-papal beatifications in history, with well over half a million people present”.

Canonisation, Filochowski continues, is one step further, “recognising him as a saint of the Universal Church, not just a saint for Salvadorans or Latin Americans” so it is “right and proper” for the celebration to take place in the Vatican.

Philippa Hitchen, Vatican news - www.vaticannews.va May 18, 2018

Photo: sgame/Bigstock.com

Mission Intention for May

That priests, who experience fatigue and loneliness in their pastoral work, may find help and comfort in their intimacy with the Lord and in their friendship with their brother priests.

We ask your prayers:

The prayers of our readers are requested for the repose of the souls of friends and benefactors of the Missionary Society of St Columban who died recently and for the spiritual and the temporal welfare of all our readers, their families and friends.

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