Good news out of
El Salvador and the Vatican:
A sainthood cause is to be opened for the man whose assassination inspired Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero to speak out against injustice as his country slid towards civil war.
Fr Rutilio Grande, a Jesuit priest and close friend of Archbishop Romero, was killed along with the two others on 12 March 1977, which many believe was provoked by Fr Grande’s advocacy for the poor in El Salvador.
The current Archbishop of San Salvador, Jose Luis Escobar, announced on Tuesday that he is launching a diocesan inquiry, the first phase in a canonisation process, according to Fr José María Tojeira, former rector of the Jesuit university in the city.
Archbishop Romero had initially adopted a non-confrontational stance to the country’s military regime but experienced a “conversion” moment after travelling to Fr Grande’s parish after the assassination.
Archbishop Romero is quoted as saying: “When I looked at Rutilio lying there dead, I thought: if they killed him for doing what he did, then I too have to walk the same path.”
From that point on the archbishop became an outspoken critic of the Government and an advocate for the poor. He was assassinated in 1980 while saying Mass.
Fr Grande was an early promoter of liberation theology and got to know Archbishop Romero when they lived together in the seminary. He was master of ceremonies at Romero’s episcopal ordination in 1970.
Fr. Grande was murdered along with two other parishioners on March 12, 1977. You can more about about his life in this
reflection by Fr. Joe Mulligan.
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