Pope Paves Way for Sainthood for Paul VI and Archbishop Óscar Romero
They both cared for the poor and social justice, and Pope Paul VI encouraged Romero all his life long." The
approval of the miracles was the last step required for Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Romero to be canonized.
By GAIA PIANIGIANIMARCH 7, 2018
ROME — Pope Francis has paved the way for the canonization of Pope Paul VI, who led the Roman Catholic Church through turmoil in the 1960s
and ’70s, and the slain Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero, the Vatican announced on Wednesday.
Months before, on the eve of the country’s civil war, Archbishop Romero had angered many in the country’s military dictatorship by writing to President Jimmy Carter to ask
that the United States halt military aid to El Salvador, and by repeatedly calling for an end to the brutal killings of political opponents.
Archbishop Óscar Romero of San Salvador, who defended the poor
and the oppressed in his homilies and radio broadcasts, was shot and killed while he was saying Mass in a hospital chapel in El Salvador on March 24, 1980.
Francis, however, declared the archbishop a model of peace
and forgiveness in 2015, honoring the Salvadoran as a martyr in "hatred of the faith." The pope beatified the archbishop in San Salvador months later.
Francis approved the decrees on Tuesday confirming miracles attributed to the intercession of the former pontiff
and the Salvadoran archbishop, the Holy See said in a statement.