WASHINGTON – El Salvador has set a Jan. 22 date for
the beatifications of Jesuit Father Rutilio Grande, Franciscan Father
Cosme Spessotto and two laymen, the Salvadoran bishops’ conference announced
Aug. 27.
All four were martyred during the country’s civil conflict in the
1970s and 1980s, when countless Catholics, following church teachings from the
Second Vatican Council and the Latin American bishops’ conference, began
speaking out in favor of the poor and those on the margins.
The two laymen, Manuel Solórzano, an elderly sacristan, and
Nelson Rutilio Lemus, a boy in his early teens, were traveling by car with
Father Grande when he was shot multiple times on his way to a novena March 12,
1977.
The bishops’ statement said Salvadoran Cardinal Gregorio Rosa
Chávez will preside over the ceremony in the atrium of the Cathedral of
San Salvador. The atrium also was the setting where Father Grande and the
two laymen were carried in and out of during their funeral Mass, celebrated by
St. Oscar Romero when he was archbishop of San Salvador. He, too, was
martyred three years later, while celebrating Mass March 24, 1980.
Father Spessotto, a Franciscan missionary from Italy, served in
the Diocese of Zacatecoluca and spoke out against injustice just as the
archbishop did. Father Spessotto died in a similar fashion just a few months
after St. Romero: shot at point-blank range June 14, 1980.
“We give thanks to God and to Pope Francis for this immense
blessing: the elevation to the altars of these four martyrs from our
country,” said the statement from the Salvadoran bishops.
Normally, a miracle must be attributed to a person’s intercession
before he or she can be beatified, but no miracle is needed for a martyr. Once
the martyr is beatified, a miracle is needed before he or she can be canonized
a saint.
Salvadoran Bishop Oswaldo Escobar of Chalatenango, in Rome for a meeting
of Discalced Carmelites, said he briefly greeted Pope Francis during his Aug.
25 general audience to give him a copy of a book he recently wrote about St.
Romero and quietly thanked him for the imminent news.
“He told me he had devotion to Rutilio Grande,” the
bishop said in an Aug. 27 WhatsApp call.
Ana Grande, Father Grande’s niece, said she was “beyond
thrilled” about the news.
“It’s obviously such a beautiful surprise. It brings our
Salvadoran people together … this legacy of loving one another, it’s a
constant reminder of what we’re supposing to be doing, which is loving one
another,” she said in an Aug. 27 telephone interview.
“I think, unfortunately, we have very short-term memory. We
forget (El Salvador) just went through this civil war, and the country has
been trapped in this violence that continues to shape it, but here’s this
alternative, with the beautiful legacy of my tío (uncle) and Father Spessotto.
Here’s a reflection of what we’re supposed to do.”
The two priests tried to build a sense of community for the poor
of the country, who often were exploited by the oligarchy. But their messages,
like that of St. Romero, were often disparaged as political instead of coming
out the church teachings that told Catholics to care for the poor and
marginalized.
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