Oscar Romero

It seems that the Salvadoran bishops are 'pushing' the cause for canonisation of Oscar Romero, the assassinated Archbishop of San Salvador. Zenit has the story here. The current Archbishop is reported as calling for increased private devotions to Romero. Now, I'm not sure if this blog counts as private or public but save to say he features in my prayer life regularly. "The truth is that we have seen little private devotion and, on this point, it is fitting that there be greater devotion. There can be no public devotion for a person whose cause is being studied in the Vatican, but there can be private devotion, and it is fitting that it increase," the Archbishop added.

If you consider his intervention may be of help in your prayers then please consider asking him to intercede. I've been asking him to intercede for the people of Haiti, and for all those who needlessly suffer because of the poverty they experience. Knowing something of his background and the remarkable life and witness he led after being elevated to Archbishop it seems to me that he has some affinity with the poor. He's a good man to intercede.

Wikipedia, that bastion of authority, reports: Many suspect that the delay in the declaration of heroism and martyrdom is due to the fact that Romero is closely tied to, but not directly involved with, the liberation theology movement espoused especially by the Jesuits of Latin America. The charge has been dismissed by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints who have pointed out that Romero has not yet met certain criteria to move on to the next levels of the inquests, processes which have historically taken decades to roll into motion.

Five years before his assassination, Romero wrote to Pope Paul VI calling for Josemaria Escriva to be canonised. He wrote: Most Blessed Father, I humbly repeat my petition for a quick opening of the cause for the beatification and canonization of Monsignor Escriva de Balaguer, for the greater glory of God and for the edification of the Church.

Oscar Romero: “We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.” Are these the words of a saint?