BEATIFICATION OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO,
MAY 23, 2015
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| Bl. Paul VI blesses image of Fr. Grande presented by Bl. Oscar Romero. |
This weekend the
Archdiocese of San Salvador published in its diocesan weekly the news that the
Archbishop of San Salvador has accepted the «Suplex Libellus» or formal request to open the cause of the
Salvadoran Jesuit priest Rutilio Grande García, although the process is already
in an advanced phase. In the decree published by the archdiocese we read that
the request was made by Msgr. Rafael Urrutia, who was appointed vice postulator
of the cause “by order given in Rome on
June 16 this year.” Super Martyrio
has confirmed that the Postulator of the Cause will be Fr. Anton Witwer, SJ,
Postulator General for the Jesuit Order.
The assignment
to Jesuit headquarters confirms the importance of the cause for a Jesuit
pontificate. Many sources have reported that the cause is close to Pope Francis’
heart. Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of
Saints—the highest authority on canonization processes in the Church—conveyed
the importance to the Archbishop of San Salvador, Mgr. José Luis Escobar Alas
in May. “We are very pleased—the Pope is very pleased”—the prelate
said to Archbishop Escobar upon greeting him at the airport—“that you have already begun the process of
canonization of Father Rutilio Grande”.
The Pope himself
brought up Fr. Grande on his own when asked about the Romero case in August
2014 flying back from Korea, “after him
[Romero] there is Rutilio Grande,” the Pope recalled.
The interest
of the Holy Father is no coincidence: “I
met Rutilio Grande once, at a meeting on Latin America, but did not speak with
him,” said the Pontiff. “After
his death I became very interested. He left the ‘center’ to go to the peripheries”—one of the central pastoral themes of
the Bergoglio pontificate. Father Grande left a university teaching position, “to be the pastor of the oppressed and
marginalized peasants,” Cardinal Amato said in his homily for Archbishop Romero. “He was a great one,”
says the Pope.
The Rutilio
Grande cause will draw on lessons learned during the course of the Romero case
and expects to dramatically shorten the time needed to accomplish the goal. In
fact, even before the acceptance of the «Suplex
Libellus» much work had already been done. Between the end of last year and
beginning of this year, about 30 testimonies of witnesses, including family
members, priests and laity, were collected to support the beatification of the Salvadoran
Jesuit martyr. Msgr. Urrutia, Father Edwin Henriquez (second vice postulator of
the cause), and the lawyer Rodrigo Belismelis (also a veteran of the Romero cause)
collected testimonies in El Salvador and Guatemala.
After
concluding the diocesan process, the Father Grande file will be put into the
hands of the Jesuit curia, whose recently successfully completed cases include
the equivalent canonization of Saint Peter Faber and Saint José de Anchieta,
both under Pope Francis. Based on the track records of the Salvadoran and Jesuit
postulators, we should expect to see the second Salvadoran Blessed very soon.
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| Publication on Suplex Libellus. |
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