Pope Francis on Tuesday
authorised the promulgation of a decree beatifying Oscar Romero,
the El Salvador archbishop killed by a murder squad in 1980.
The postulator of the slain archbishop's cause, Archbishop
Vincenzo Paglia, will hold a press briefing in the Vatican at
noon Wednesday, Vatican Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.
The congregation that oversees canonization for the
Catholic Church declared on January 9 that archbishop Romero was
killed "in odium fidei" (in hatred of the faith), a necessary
requirement for beatification as a martyr.
The Congregation for the Causes of Saints voted unanimously
for the formal martyrdom of the archbishop of San Salvador, who
was a vocal opponent of El Salvador's military dictatorship and
was assassinated by a sniper on March 24, 1980, while
celebrating Mass.
The Latin American archbishop has been a candidate for
beatification since 1997 but his case had been blocked by the
Church over concerns that he had Marxist ideas.
Pope Francis, an Argentinian and the first Latin American
pope, lifted the ban on Romero's beatification last August.
Beatification, which grants the title of "Blessed", is the
third of four steps in the canonization process.
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