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The official Vaticanese  language recently  stated that Archbishop Oscar Romero’s sainthood cause has been “unblocked.”

Well who was blocking it in the first place?


The answer John Paul ll, Benedict XVl and the whole curial apparatus who slavishly took their cues from the power centre. Much to their embarrassment these men never grasped the holiness of Romero or the reality of El Salvador. They listened to the wealthy landowning class “who preferred to dine with the military junta than break bread with the poor.”(David Yallop) They  kept repeating the cheap mantra that Romero was a dupe of the Marxists or Communists, a secret proponent of the feared liberation theology. The detractors of Romero inside the church used the canard that there were “theological errors” in his writings. John Paul ll was  persuaded by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith under the Eastern European Cardinal Franjo Seper  to reassign Romero. John Paul ll had the order to do this on the day Romero was martyred. Previously;y the pope had humiliated Romero by making him wait four weeks for an audience. Later it was reported the pope regretted this.

After the Archbishop was murdered while sayinh mass, an italian judge wrote to the paper Corriere  della Sera:

“Why did the traveling pope not immediately set off for San Salvador to pick up the chalice that had been dropped from Romero’s hands and continue the mass which the murdered archbishop had begun?”

The answer was John Paul ll simply failed to understand the stunning oppression of the Salvadoran people and the brave  archbishop who  had become their greatest advocate. Much like he failed to understand the papal sycophant the disgraced founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Marcial Maciel Degollado. The latter, a serial abuser poured millions into Vatican coffers and gained papal trust. In 2004  John Paul ll ordained 60 Legionaries in the Vatican labelling  Maciel as the perfect example of priesthood to be followed by these young priests.  Well maybe not and certainly not Romero.

Within months of his martyrdom Oscar Romero was hailed as a saint by much of the Latin American world but the officials including the pope could not  admit that they had horribly misjudged an authentic disciple of Jesus.

And now within six weeks of becoming pope another Latin American who understands the region and the popular sainthood of Romero has “unblocked” the whole process.

Another nice move by Pope Francis.