During a religious act, José Luis Escobar Alas said that “the announcement fills us with joy” and indicated that “the fact is an act of justice.”
The Catholic Church of El Salvador and its parishioners celebrated this Saturday the news that Father Rutilio Grande, assassinated in 1977 by death squads, he was recognized as a “martyr” by the Congregation for the Cause of Saints, so he may be proclaimed blessed.
“This is a special day and holiday in heaven and on earth. It is the day on which Pope Francis has signed the decree of beatification approval of our brother (Rutilio Grande), ”said the Archbishop of San Salvador, José Luis Escobar Alas, during a religious ceremony held at the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador .
The archbishop, who was accompanied by the cardinal, Gregorio Rosa Chavez, and the apostolic nuncio, Santo Rocco Gangemi, said that “the announcement fills us with joy” and indicated that “the fact is an act of justice.”
Holy Mass of thanksgiving for the promulgation of the decree of the martyrdom of Fr. Rutilio Grande S.J., Manuel Solórzano and Nelson Rutilio Grande, chaired by the Archbishop of San Salvador, Mons. José Luis Escobar Alas and concelebrated by invited priests from @catedral_ss pic.twitter.com/ee2oGmqA9d
– Archbishopric SS (@arzobispadoss) February 22, 2020
The faithful Catholics who participated in the activity carried photographs and articles alluding to Father Grande, who was killed years before the outbreak of the Salvadoran civil war (1980-1992).
The Government of El Salvador also celebrated the news and noted that it is an event “important for El Salvador, the Catholic Church, its parishioners and the entire population.”
“The decision of the Holy See to proclaim him (to Rutilio Grande) martyr and possible blessed shows us that this step is very significant for society, peace and tranquility of our country through faith and values professed by the father Grande, a contemporary person to San Óscar Arnulfo Romero, ”the Executive said in a statement.
Photo Twitter @arzobispadoss
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The new Blessed Salvadoran was born on July 5, 1928 in El Paisnal, and was a Jesuit priest who identified himself with the excluded population.
The declaration of “martyrdom” is decisive for the beatification, since then it is not necessary to recognize a miracle as in the rest of the processes.
Along with Rutilio Grande, the two people who died with him in an ambush, Manuel Solórzano, 72, and Nelson Rutilio Lemus, 17, when they were going to celebrate the Eucharist and were shot in the vehicle where they were traveling, will also be beatified.
This Jesuit, known as “Padre Tilo”, was a pastor in the town of Aguilares, 32 kilometers north of San Salvador, and maintained a friendship with Archbishop Romero, also killed in 1980, while officiating a mass.
Romero was consecrated archbishop of San Salvador in February 1977 and three weeks later Grande was murdered, a fact that led him to the beginning of a long chain of complaints of serious violations of social rights and injustices until he was killed by a death squad.
Father Grande was killed in a place known as Las Tres Cruces, located in the municipality of El Paisnal and which has become a place of pilgrimage for the faithful.
Pope Francis had assured in October 2015 that Grande and Romero, who was declared holy on October 14, 2018, was “a treasure and a founded hope for the Church and for Salvadoran society.”
At the beginning of 2019 during his trip to Panama, the Pope already advanced a group of Jesuits that the beatification process proceeded “very well.”
“I love Rutilio very much. At the entrance of my room I have a frame that contains a piece of bloody cloth by (Óscar) Romero and the notes of a catechism of Rutilio ”, revealed the Pope at this meeting.
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