Jacques Hamel, the French priest brutally slain by two ISIS sympathizers as he was celebrating Mass in late July, is a martyr, Pope Francis says. This suggests sainthood for the murdered priest may not be far off. The pontiff also said that killing in the name of God is “satanic.” On Wednesday morning, Francis celebrated Read more
Martyred teacher Blessed Benedict Daswa has become the first South African to be beatified. He was proclaimed blessed in an apostolic letter read on behalf of Pope Francis by Italian Cardinal Angelo Amato during a Mass in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province on Sunday. The ceremony in Tshitanini village was attended by some 30,000 people. Read more
Martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero was beatified on May 23 in El Salvador with hundreds of thousands of people present for the occasion. “Romero, friend, the people are with you,” the congregation chanted at a square in San Salvador. Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided over the beatification Mass. Read more
Martyred Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero is to be beatified on May 23 in San Salvador. The ceremony will be in Plaza Divino Salvador del Mundo, said Italian Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the chief promoter of the archbishop’s sainthood cause. Archbishop Paglia called the beatification a gift for the world, but particularly for the people of El Salvador. In February, Pope Read more
The former secretary of Archbishop Oscar Romero says the martyred prelate was not a great fan of liberation theology. Msgr Jesus Delgado said Archbishop Romero was visited by proponents of liberation theology and they left him their books. Msgr Delgado said he doubted the archbishop ever read them. Liberation theology “was in opposition to what Read more
A leading campaigner of the cause of Archbishop Oscar Romero believes the slain prelate was a martyr of the church of the Second Vatican Council. The postulator of the archbishop’s cause, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, said that Romero’s killers wanted “to strike the Church that flowed from the Second Vatican Council”. On February 3, Pope Francis Read more
Pope Francis has assured the bishops of El Salvador that the cause for sainthood of murdered Archbishop Oscar Romero is proceeding well. The bishops reportedly asked him to come to El Salvador to preside personally over the archbishop’s hoped-for beatification. Archbishop Jose Escobar Alas said he and three other Salvadoran bishops met the Pope at Read more
Nearly twice as many Christians were killed for their faith in 2013 as in 2012 reports The World Watch List. The study ranks the 50 countries that are home to the worst treatment of Christians and is issued by Open Doors USA. The top 10 countries “where Christians faced the most pressure and violence,” according Read more
The Vatican official responsible for the sainthood cause of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador says his cause has been “unblocked” by Pope Francis. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia gave no further details of why the cause had been blocked in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Archbishop Romero was shot in 1980 as he Read more
The election of a Latin American Pope has renewed speculation about the likelihood of beatification for Bishop Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador who was murdered at the altar 33 years ago. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has been examining Romero’s cause since 1996. Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez, Auxiliary Bishop of San Read more