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After a 38-year-wait, it’s now official. Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, murdered in 1980 for speaking out against military oppression, will become a saint of the Roman Catholic Church at a Vatican ceremony on 14 October. On 19 May, Pope Francisco, the first pontiff from the Americas, announced the decision during a meeting with cardinals based in Rome. Romero, long considered a saint by Catholics across the Americas, will be elevated to universal veneration at the Vatican ceremony alongside Pope Paul VI, the pontiff who first appointed him a bishop and made the fateful decision in 1977 to make him archbishop of San Salvador. Four others… two Italian priests and German and Spanish founders of separate women’s religious orders… will also become saints at the ceremony.
The Salvadoran’s canonisation, while expected in recent months, nonetheless represents the culmination of one of the clearest turnabouts of Francisco’s nearly five-year papacy. The cause for Romero languished for decades under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who expressed unease with his connection to liberation theology and his vocal denunciations of government killings and kidnappings. Less than two years after his election as pontiff, Francisco placed Romero firmly on the sainthood track, formally decreeing in February 2015 that the archbishop was assassinated as a martyr for the Catholic faith. He then authorised his beatification, the last step before sainthood, in May of that year. El Salvador’s ambassador to the UK, Elisabeth Hayek-Weinmann, told us:
Romero’s coming sainthood represents a unique opportunity for us to heal our historical wounds, restore our social fabric, and build a new sense of national identity based on common values, with social justice and respect for human dignity at its core. His teachings and legacy provide us, as a nation, a strong moral compass.
During the 19 May meeting with cardinals, known as a consistory, Francisco formally received the request to authorise the canonization of the six persons by Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes. Amato gave Francisco a brief biographical sketch of each of the sainthood candidates. He said:
Romero was archbishop during a time of great political crisis in El Salvador and was outraged at seeing the violence against the weak and the killing of priests and catechists, he felt the need to assume an attitude of fortitude. On 24 March 1980, he was killed while celebrating Mass.
After hearing each candidate’s history, Francisco announced their canonisations as a group and set the date and place of the ceremony. As it became clear in recent weeks that Francis would announce Romero’s canonisation, discussions in Rome focused on whether the pontiff would decide to hold the ceremony at the Vatican or in El Salvador. Considerations included trying to make the event accessible to Salvadorans wishing to attend but wanting also to emphasise that, as a saint, Romero will be an example of Christian witness not just for El Salvador but the entire world. Carlos Colorado, a Salvadoran who runs the popular Super Martyrio blog that closely followed the process of Romero’s canonisation, said in an interview:
A ceremony in San Salvador would’ve been a blowout with people attending numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
In a recent blog, Colorado hypothesised that Francisco may still go to El Salvador soon in order to venerate the new saint’s tomb and bring a sense of celebration to the country. One opportunity would be for the pontiff to make a stopover there during his expected January 2019 visit to Panama for World Youth Day. Paulita Pike, an American who lived in El Salvador off-and-on since the early 1970s, knew Romero and now helps coordinate the popular Amigos de Romero/Cultura Romeriana Facebook page, said:
By canonising Romero in Rome, Francisco is holding him up as the model pastor, the model bishop, for the bishops gathered there. Wherever he’s canonised, he’s going to be our saint.
Pike kept vigil at Romero’s tomb in San Salvador’s cathedral overnight on 18 May with members of her group, awaiting news of the canonisation. She said:
He isn’t ours but he’s St Romero of the Americas. Now, he’s going to be St Romero of the world.
19 May 2018
Joshua McElwee
National Catholic Reporter
8 July 2017. A Word on the Myrrh-Streaming Icon of St Ioann Maksimovich in the American-Occupied DNR
Tags: Central Intelligence Agency, Christian, Christianity, CIA, civil unrest, DNR, Donbass, Donetsk People's Republic, Eastern Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, Novorossiya, Orthodox, Orthodoxy, political commentary, politics, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Liberty, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, RFE/RL, Russia, Russian, Russian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, saint, saints, St Ioann Maksimovich, St John Maximovich, Ukraine, Ukrainian Civil War, United States, USA, war and conflict
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Victor Potapov is circulating a news item about an icon of St Ioann Maksimovich streaming myrrh in the DNR. Note well that the CIA pig Potapov didn’t mention that the event took place in the American-occupied fascist part of the DNR. Myrrh-streaming is usually a sign of comfort in times of trouble. Note well that the CIA quisling Potapov (a real “Chekist in a riassa” if there ever was such) doesn’t mention that the fascist Uniate “Ukraine” is falling apart as we speak, with great suffering for ordinary people. This myrrh-streaming is divine proof that the “Ukraine” isn’t long for this world and that God is comforting His people to steady them for the coming trials as the American-imposed Uniate pseudo-state collapses. Potapov was a high-ranking CIA operative with a “red” official US passport (that gave him immunity from ordinary passport control). One must never forget this. Potapov took Langley’s money to undermine his ancestral homeland. Radio Liberty had the purpose (and still does) of undermining the USSR/Russia. What can you say of a priest who willingly aided such an enterprise?
This event doesn’t bode well for the “Ukraine” in the near term. The only reason that the fascist Uniate junta staggers on is that the USA props it up. The suffering in that region is intense at present… it’ll get worse as order and state control collapse. The icon streams myrrh to remind people that God is still with them in their distress and grief. Note well that none of the konvertsy jerks noticed any of this. If you needed proof that they’re idiots, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, this is that. They support American politicians that back the murder of our Orthodox kids in the Donbass… they’re “pro-life”, after all…
BMD