Thursday, October 08, 2015

Francis to receive Romero delegation


 
BEATIFICATION OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO, MAY 23, 2015
 

 
Francis in the Clementine Hall.


Pope Francis will receive a delegation at the Vatican of over 300 Salvadorans, led by six bishops, to thank the pontiff for the beatification of Archbishop Oscar A. Romero, and to invite him to visit the country. So says Monsignor Gregorio Rosa Chavez, auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, in an interview.

Mgr. Rosa Chavez specified that they will propose to the Holy Father the idea of visiting El Salvador during his recently announced visit to Mexico, which still has no date. “He wants to come to do two things: to canonize Romero and to beatify Father Rutilio Grande,” said Bishop Rosa. “If we expedite the process for Fr. Rutilio, we could have the surprise” of a papal detour from Mexico to El Salvador. "We will explore that possibility with the pope on October 30, that from Mexico he could come here,” said the prelate.

During the same interview, Msgr. Chavez opined that pope Francis accelerated the Romero beatification as well as reforms in the church and has wanted to initiate a revision of the pastoral policies regarding the family because he thinks that his pontificate will be short. In addition, Rosa said he was astounded at the depth with which the pope spoke about Blessed Romero in a letter sent to the Salvadoran Church on the day of the beatification. “We did not think it would be so powerful.”
The audience will take place in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace at noon on Friday, October 30, and will be led by Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas, archbishop of San Salvador. The delegation would include hundreds of Salvadorans residing in Italy, in the private audience.
On May 9 of last year, four Salvadoran bishops met with the pope to advocate for the Romero beatification. This new encounter would be like the coda to that meeting.

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