Pope approves sainthood for slain Salvadoran archbishop

Pope Francis has cleared the way for slain Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero to be made a saint, declaring that the churchman who became a hero for standing up for the poor and oppressed should be canonized along with the reformer Pope Paul VI.

Francis signed a decree confirming miracles attributed to two of the most important progressive figures in the 20thcentury Catholic Church during a meeting with the head of the Vatican’s saintmaking office, the Vatican said Wednesday.

No date was set for either canonization. Vatican officials have previously said Paul VI would likely be canonized in October, during a big Vatican meeting of bishops.

The Vatican official who spearheaded Romero’s sainthood cause, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, said he hoped the two would be declared saints together in October, saying a joint canonization would give Catholics a “burst” of energy and example of the need to live one’s life for others. “I’m in a hurry because there’s an urgent need to change the world,” Paglia told The Associated Press. “The canonization is not just a ceremony, I want it to be a motor for change.”

Another option would be to canonize Romero closer to home, such as when Francis travels to Panama in January for World Youth Day. The big Catholic youth rally will draw tens of thousands of young Catholics from across Central and South America, where Romero is considered a hero.

Romero was gunned down by right-wing death squads on March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass in a hospital chapel. The country’s military dictatorship had vehemently opposed his preaching against the repression of the poor by the army at the start of the country’s 1980-1992 civil war.

Paul was responsible for presiding over the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that reformed the church.

“Romero loved to say that the Second Vatican Council asked all Christians to be martyrs today, that is, to live giving your life for others, not for yourself,” Paglia said.

Paglia said Romero’s example of literally paying with his life for the poorest of the poor was particularly needed today, “in a world full of individualism and oppression, where inequality grows rather than diminishes.”

Romero’s sainthood case had been held up for years by the Vatican, primarily due to opposition from conservative Latin American churchmen who feared Romero’s perceived association with liberation theology would embolden the movement that holds that Jesus’ teachings require followers to fight for social and economic justice.