Oscar Romero and Paul VI to be canonised Oct 14

VATICAN CITY – Following a meeting between the Council of Cardinals and Pope Francis on 19 May 2018, the Vatican announced that Bl Pope Paul VI and Bl Oscar Romero will be canonised together on 14 Oct 2018.

During an ordinary consistory on Saturday, Francis decreed that the two blesseds will be canonised alongside four others: Bl Francesco Spinelli, a diocesan priest and founder of the Institute of the Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament; Bl Vincenzo Romano, a diocesan priest from Torre de Greco in Italy; Bl Maria Caterina Kasper, a German nun and founder of the Institute of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ; and Nazaria Ignazia of Saint Teresa of Jesus, founder of the Congregation of the Misioneras Cruzadas de la Iglesia Sisters.

As expected, the canonisations will take place during the 2018 Synod of Bishops on the topic of young people, the faith and vocational discernment, which is set to take place on 3-28 Oct 2018.

The Vatican had announced March 7 that Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Oscar Romero would be canonised following the recognition of a second miracle through their intercession.

Born Giovanni Montini in 1897 in the town of Concesio, Italy, the future Pope Paul VI was ordained a priest at the age of 22. He served as Archbishop of Milan prior to his election as Bishop of Rome in 1963.

As pope, he oversaw much of the Second Vatican Council, which had been opened by Pope St John XXIII, and in 1969 promulgated a new Roman Missal. He died in 1978, and was beatified by Pope Francis on 19 Oct 2014.

Pope Francis himself unofficially confirmed the news of Paul VI’s canonisation during his annual meeting with the priests of Rome Feb 17.

Apart from his role in the council, Paul VI is most widely know for his landmark encyclical Humanae Vitae, which was published in 1968 and reaffirmed the Church’s teaching against contraception in wake of the sexual revolution. This year marks the 50th anniversary the historic encyclical.

Both miracles attributed to Paul VI’s intercession involve the healing of an unborn child.

Bl Oscar Romero, who was beatified by Pope Francis on 23 May 2015, in El Salvador, was the archbishop of the nation’s capital city of San Salvador. He was shot while celebrating Mass on 24 March 1980, during the birth of a civil war between leftist guerrilla forces and the dictatorial government of the right.

An outspoken critic of the violence and injustices being committed at the time, Romero was declared a martyr who was killed in hatred of the faith for his vocal defense of human rights. – Hannah Brockhaus, CNA/EWTN News