Talking about Oscar Romero

Another article has appeared speculating about internal Vatican theological politics and its impact on whether slaim archbishop Oscar Romero will be declared a saint by the Roman Catholic church:

When Pope Benedict XVI visited Brazil earlier this year, he told local journalists that "Romero as a person merits beatification", a remark Vatican officials deleted from official transcripts. Romero's supporters suspect that a favourable report from the church body responsible for reviewing his doctrinal credentials may also have been suppressed.

They argue that far more controversial figures have been made saints in the recent past, among them Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, head of the secretive Opus Dei organisation which many liberal Catholics regard as a cult, and the Italian mystic Padre Pio, who claimed he could cure the blind and was able to appear in different places at the same time.

As a journalist who reported frequently from the region, I interviewed Romero on several occasions: a warm and humble man from a poor background, he never hesitated to condemn abuses committed by the Marxist rebels then locked in a brutal civil war with the US-backed Salvadoran regime.

Driven by his passionate commitment to social justice, he regarded himself as a spokesman for the poor and oppressed who had no voice of their own.

While some engage in the speculation, our friend Polycarpio continues his blog, Super Martyrio, "the inside track on the beatification cause of Archbishop Romero of El Salvador." His most recent post looks at the Hebrew prophets' influence on Romero's preaching and theology.