"Honestly, I think this one of the most supernatural things I have ever experienced in my life," Father Manuel Dorantes told CNA May 29.

A priest of the diocese of Chicago and Spanish assistant to the director of the Holy See press office, Fr. Dorantes was present in San Salvador for the May 23 beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Continue reading

In a country where the major media refused to report on the unbridled military violence, Romero refused to be censored.

He refused to be silent — despite getting daily death threats and having his archdiocesan radio station bombed.

Through his homilies, radio broadcasts and reports in the archdiocesan newspaper, every week Romero detailed the tortures, murders and disappearances, making sure that truth would not be the first casualty of war.

The archbishop was not only the most trusted, but frequently the sole source of news about what was happening in the country.

His often hourslong homilies, broadcast every Sunday by the archdiocesan radio station YSAX, were the most popular program in the country, with nearly 75 percent of the rural population and 50 percent of the urban population listening in — along with the U.S. Embassy.

That made the station, which also broadcast information from the homilies later in the week, a recurring target of the military, which jammed its signal and bombed its offices.

Romero's courage in reporting on the atrocities while living inside the war zone stands in sharp contrast not only to the Salvadoran media of his day, but to the U.S. media today — from the self-aggrandizing falsehoods spouted by NBC anchor Brian Williams and FOX News commentator Bill O'Reilly, to the mainstream media's failure to pursue the Bush administration's lies about weapons of mass destruction and their refusal to use the word torture to describe torture. Continue reading

Source & Image

• National Catholic Reporter

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 the Vatican this month to discuss Archbishop Romero's cause.

"We ask the Lord for the speedy beatification of Archbishop Romero and that the Pope come here" to celebrate the ceremony, Archbishop Escobar said.

The Pope told the Salvadoran bishops that he was pleased the process was moving ahead, but he gave no indication of when it would be completed, the archbishop told reporters.

Archbishop Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, was shot dead on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in a hospital.

This was one day after he delivered a homily calling on Salvadoran soldiers to stop enforcing government repression and human rights violations.

Pope John Paul II gave him the title "servant of God" in 1997, and the cause for his canonisation began.

But it stalled under the papacy of Benedict XVI as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith studied Archbishop Romero's writings.

This was amid wider debate over whether he had been killed for his faith or for political reasons.

Pope Francis revived the cause soon after he was elected last year.

In 2013, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family and official promoter of Archbishop Romero's cause, said the process had been "unblocked", but gave no further details.

Before Archbishop Romero can be beatified, Pope Francis must officially recognise him as a martyr or officially recognise a miracle received through his intercession.

Recent reports in several languages had suggested that an announcement about Archbishop Romero's beatification was near.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Good Shepherd BH