________________________
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
Voices from Russia 
26 July 2016. Well Done, Thou Good and Faithful Servant
Tags: Christian, Christianity, civil unrest, Crime, Crime and Justice, France, hate crime, heinous crimes, ISIS, martyr, martyrdom, martyrs, political commentary, politics, Priest, priests, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholic Church, terror, terrorism, terrorists, war and conflict
______________________________
TO:
His Eminence André Cardinal Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, Chairman of the Bishops’ Conference of France
Your Eminence!
With a sense of deep sorrow, we received the news of the terrible crime in a Catholic church in Rouen… a terakt* during liturgy, which led to a hostage situation and to the killing of Priest Jacques Hamel. This heinous crime occurred in the Holy Place. It was striking in its inhuman cruelty; it violated every moral norm. It doesn’t and can’t have any justification. I express my sincere condolences to you, to the clergy and faithful of the Roman Catholic Church in France, and to the relatives, friends, and spiritual children of the murdered pastor. May God, who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life (Gospel according to St John 3.16), give rest to the soul of His servant in the mansions of heaven, give comfort and support to the victims, and give peace and blessing to the French people.
With love in the Lord,
Patriarch of Moscow and all the Russias
26 July 2016
Patriarchia.ru
MP Official Website
http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/4573546.html
******
When a Christian or group of Christians dies because they trust that Christ is the faithful revelation of God and of a new humanity, their death is not like Obi-Wan Kenobi’s last words to Darth Vader, “Strike me down and I’ll become more powerful than you could imagine”. Resurrection isn’t about returning to fight worldly means of power with the powers known to this world. No… as the Body of Christ, our death is like the death of Jesus, a great humility accepted voluntarily for the life of the world… with all kinds of conflicting human emotions. “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”… even friends that at the moment look a lot like enemies. Our hope (and our vindication) isn’t in a resurrection that makes us more powerful than our temporal enemies, but a resurrection to eternal life… a great victory for ALL persons over the enemies of all whom God has made in His image, all whom God cherishes… every last human-being. Those enemies are sin, famine, disease, pestilence, sword, decay, calamities, death, and the Accuser. If we’re in Christ, our enemies are no longer our human brothers and sisters.
26 July 2016
Kenneth Tanner
Facebook
******
A witness of Christ, Fr Jacques Hamel, martyr. Pray for his soul, his witness, for Christians throughout the world suffering persecution.
26 July 2016
Seán Cardinal O’Malley, OFM Cap
Archbishop of Boston (Roman Catholic)
Twitter
Editor:
You can say what you will about Cardinal Seán… he walks the walk when it comes to aiding the poor and needy (a good Orthodox analogue would be Bishop Panteleimon Shatov). This Sunday, light a candle when you go to liturgy and say a private prayer for the repose of Fr Jacques… priests can say a private prayer as they do the Proskomidi. The canons allow this. We’re Christians… that’s what we do.
Look at HH… he shows us the way. ‘Nuff said…
BMD