Father Varona has a long way to go.
Is the
carrier
. He has sworn before the bishop of Córdoba, Demetrio Fernández, not to part with the heavy wooden chest that he moves with a moving cart until he completes his mission: to reach Rome and deliver it to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in the heart of the Vatican. The drawer, a carpentry masterpiece, is one meter long by half high; its lid is hermetically screwed; It is crossed by a red silk ribbon sealed with the bishop's seal; It contains the 13,200 secret pages of the cause of beatification of the Cadiz religious Pedro Manuel Salado, who died on the Ecuadorian beach of Atacames on February 5, 2012, after saving the lives of seven children. This documentation can elevate Salado to the altars. As the bishop explains,“A cause of holiness supposes reaching moral certainty in the face of a proposed doubt that this Christian is in heaven; that his career represents a model of imitation and should be the object of veneration ”.
The process has only just begun, although Salado has already entered the category of "servant of God." At the end of the road, a miracle will have to be demonstrated, an inexplicable fact and against the norms of nature, which occurred through his intercession. The miracle is done by God (it is his signature to the whole process), but through the future saint. And if there is no miracle, the candidate will be no more than a "venerable servant of God." And it will have to wait. Even centuries. Perhaps the miracle will never come.
To be blessed, one must be accredited to the Holy See and another to be a saint. Most consist of healings (instantaneous, complete, lasting, and inexplicable). The list of supernatural events recorded in the Congregation is endless; from tumors that fade to torn amniotic sacs that close; from chronic diarrhea and vomiting that stop and rare diseases that heal to a young man who falls from a height of 15.5 meters without suffering any injury. There is also a whole catalog of conversions, bilocations (being in two places at the same time, as Padre Pío used to do), food multiplication (San Juan Macías, in 1949, grew a handful of rice in Olivenza, Badajoz, to satiate a hungry multitude), visions, revelations, stigmata and even levitations.The least frequent is the resurrection. "It is the most difficult and of the highest degree," clarifies a specialist priest. Not all Catholics have the same opinion about miracles. For the theologian Juan José Tamayo: "They belong to the mythology of credulity, of ignorance, they do not promote faith or solidarity, but superstition and miraculousness."
Dressing carving of the Virgen de la Soledad.
National Sculpture Museum, in Valladolid.
Navia
These files, methodically filed and packed, that he is transporting to Rome have meant three years of painstaking work for Miguel Varona, gathering documents (even weather reports from the beach where Salado died) and dozens of interviews;
thousands of sworn questions and testimonies about the life and death of your candidate.
This priest is the postulator (the person in charge, the promoter) of the
cause
, as the whole process of beatification is called in the Catholic Church, which bears a great resemblance to a judicial procedure, with an investigation phase and a trial phase, until concluding in a sentence, attending (supposedly) the cry of Christians who smell the
fumus sanctitatis
(reputation of holiness) of the candidate. Thus, according to the priest Alberto Fernández, delegate of the Causes of Saints of the Diocese of Madrid, “three voices are united in each cause: that of the people of God, who says, 'there is something exceptional here'; that of the Church, through a cause that is like a judgment, and that of God, through the miracle, which is the divine seal ”.
For three years, Father Varona has been Salado's life detective. In this time, as happens to the majority of the proponents of the causes (no more than two hundred in the whole world), he has become obsessed with his postulate. He trusts that this cause will make its way into the bureaucracy of the Vatican "factory of saints", that in a couple of years it will obtain the Decree of Validity and, from there, pass the long final examination of the writing, analysis, trials and secret votes on the
positio
(the thesis bound in red leather and engraved with gold letters that documents why that servant of God accumulates merits for holiness). Until one day, after obtaining the unanimity of the group of bishops and cardinals who meet two Tuesdays a month in the Bologna Room of the Congregation in Rome, the cause reaches the hands of the Pope in a beautiful leather folder. And the Supreme Pontiff decides. And decree.
The Pope is the only one who can confirm (or advise against) the sanctity of a candidate.
It is an infallible and irrevocable decision.
Without turning back.
No one in the Church knows how to answer what would happen if after his canonization it was shown that a saint had not been a saint: "It has not been the case."
However, some advanced cases, such as that of the founder of the neo-conservative Schönstatt movement, the priest Josef Kentenich, are frozen for alleged sexual abuse.
Image of San Sebastián, Museum of the cathedral, Santiago de Compostela.Navia
After the phase of investigation and collection of evidence normally in the diocese where the postulate died, that of the Vatican (called the Roman Phase) can last decades; even centuries: such as that of Isabel la Católica, reactivated in 1958 and paralyzed in 1991 for having expelled the Jews from Spain, or that of the architect Antonio Gaudí, who died in 1926. Decades will pass under the severe scrutiny of theologians, canonists, historians , jurists, doctors, cardinals and bishops; of steps forward and backward. And to catch a lot of dust. The causes are slow. They begin in a historical moment and are resolved in a different one, when since the postulator who initiated it, the witnesses and the same pope who authorized its opening have died. The century is the unit of measurement of time in the Vatican.
At times, near their conclusion, some are no longer of interest to the Holy See. And they stay in limbo. Above all, if the postulate is not within the ideological (or propagandistic) line of the pontiff on duty. The opposite may be the case, that it is interesting to speed it up. Like the speed record of John Paul II (a sudden saint), who in just nine years was canonized (breaking the rules at the wish of Benedict XVI); or the scarce 18 years of processing of the controversial case of Teresa of Calcutta. However, contrary to general belief, the founder of Opus Dei, Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, did not run that long: it took 27 years. But when his cause was launched, a third of the episcopate, the superiors of the great religious orders and even heads of state collaborated in its development. At the time, it seems,some negative testimonials were dispensed with. The Work gathered 20,000 irrefutable pages, according to one of the 20 members who worked in the drafting of the Escrivá case, José Carlos Martín de la Hoz, director of the Office for the Causes of the Saints of Opus Dei, who has also collaborated in those of the successors of Saint Josemaría at the head of Opus: Álvaro del Portillo (who was proclaimed blessed in 17 years) and Javier Echevarría (whose beatification process will open shortly).Álvaro del Portillo (who was proclaimed blessed in 17 years) and Javier Echevarría (whose beatification process will open shortly).Álvaro del Portillo (who was proclaimed blessed in 17 years) and Javier Echevarría (whose beatification process will open shortly).
In the ecclesial environment they comment (in a low voice) that there are “strategic causes that are accelerated by political reasons, agenda, opportunity; because it is the message that interests the Church at that moment. And also as diplomacy, during the Pope's trips to territories in which he is interested in promoting Catholicism ”. There are saints of
every moment
. With an ideological and human profile in accordance with each Holy Father. Each diocese and each order or congregation wants to have theirs, because it is a
seal of quality.
And the Vatican machinery sets the direction. And it accelerates or slows down (freezes, dilates, suspends, blocks) according to your interest. Wojtyla made Teresa of Calcutta and Escrivá saints, but did not consider the beatification of Óscar Romero (who was assassinated by the extreme right while officiating mass in El Salvador) or of the Jesuit Ignacio Ellacuría (also assassinated in El Salvador by paramilitaries) "opportune." ). Nor that of Ignacio Arrupe, the superior of the Jesuits, ideological rival of John Paul II, whose process (finally) has been opened 28 years after his death, and which is postulated by the hardened Father Pascual Cebollada along with a team of 10 members of the Society of Jesus. They moved within the framework of Liberation Theology and "the preferential option for the poor." It was not Wojtyla's agenda.“The saints who are elected with each papacy legitimize that model of the Church; They are the best propaganda of the vision that the Pope has of the world; canonizations are their political hook ”, explains theologian Juan José Tamayo, who continues:“ With John Paul II a more spiritualist, ecclesiastical, orthodox race of saints was coined. He made more saints and blesseds than any other pope in history: more than 1,700 in 27 years. Today, Jesus Christ would not pass the filter of the Congregation, because he criticized the rich, bet on women and the excluded, and died at the hands of power ”. It is confirmed by a Jesuit from Madrid: "To be a saint, you cannot be unorthodox."“With John Paul II a more spiritualistic, ecclesiastical, orthodox race of saints was coined. He made more saints and blesseds than any other pope in history: more than 1,700 in 27 years. Today, Jesus Christ would not pass the filter of the Congregation, because he criticized the rich, bet on women and the excluded, and died at the hands of power ”. It is confirmed by a Jesuit from Madrid: "To be a saint, you cannot be unorthodox."“With John Paul II a more spiritualistic, ecclesiastical, orthodox race of saints was coined. He made more saints and blesseds than any other pope in history: more than 1,700 in 27 years. Today, Jesus Christ would not pass the filter of the Congregation, because he criticized the rich, bet on women and the excluded, and died at the hands of power ”. It is confirmed by a Jesuit from Madrid: "To be a saint, you cannot be unorthodox."
Francis has also changed the profile of aspiring saints. According to José Beltrán, director of the magazine
Vida Nueva
(the informative reference of the
sector
), “when Bergoglio arrives, he sees that there are only male saints, from developed and rich countries; saints of Opus and of the nuns who invested their savings in canonizing their founder. But that could not be done by the Catholics of Nigeria or the mothers of large families, or the laity or the missionaries of Africa. There were many from the north and few from the south. John Paul II was looking for saints who had not said or written anything against the doctrine. Francis seeks normal, everyday holiness; the one next door ”.
The most evident political handling of the beatifications was carried out by John Paul II with the Catholics murdered during the Spanish civil war out of hatred for their faith (
odium fidei
), which the most conservative sources place at 64,000 and the Spanish Episcopal Conference, from the mouth of its director of the Causes, Lourdes Grosso, figures between 8,000 and 10,000. During the Franco regime, in 1964, Paul VI (a pope refractory to the Franco dictatorship) refused to start those beatification processes for martyrdom, because “a beatification should serve to educate the people, not to divide them,” as he explained. Cardinal Pietro Palazzini. However, in 1983, John Paul II placed on his ideological roadmap the beatification of the Spanish martyrs (and of the countries behind the Iron Curtain) and reactivated them under the direction of the Teresian nun Encarnita González with the commission of “ coordinate the causes of the martyrs of religious persecution in Spain ”. Of the more than 8.000 files of murdered people registered by González, around 1,900 have already achieved beatification. However, in the
It was Francisco,
and with Cardinal Rouco out of the game, the matter has languished.
But in the Spanish Church they are clear that, in the coming years, another 7,000 "martyrs of the persecution of the Civil War" will ascend to the altars.
In addition to political opportunity, a cause needs money.
And permanent and adequate staff.
And time.
A field where the orders have an advantage over the laity.
Of the approximately 10,000 saints in the Church, only 10% are women, and 1% are married.
Most were
professionals
of the Church.
On that list there are 87 popes, 1,147 bishops, 467 abbots, 239 founders and foundresses of religious orders, 1,315 religious men, 958 priests and 2,300 martyrs.
To achieve a canonization, a technical and propaganda machine must be fed and oiled for decades, which today has web pages and social networks to maintain and feed. And, traditionally, with stamps to distribute in churches, with a bank account on the back. For example, on the website of the young woman from Burgos Marta Obregón, a candidate for martyrdom "in defense of the virtue of chastity", after being murdered in 1992 by Pedro Luis Gallego,
the elevator rapist
, you can read: "Until now the Expenses have been lower and we have been able to cover them with our own means, now your help will be indispensable. You can contribute using one of the ways below ”.
To be a saint you need alms.
You have to make noise.
And spread the word of the "favors" that the candidate grants to the altars.
And collect.
Without a "reputation for holiness" one does not become a saint.
As Father Martín de la Hoz affirms: “A poor cause is a poor cause”.
The shadow of corruption has always enveloped the Vatican factory of saints.
The previous prefect of the Congregation, former Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, was dismissed in 2020 by Francisco for shady real estate deals of which he is being tried.
Over the past few years, the suspicions have not faded.
The last came to light in April, when it was denounced that the Congregation had asked for money to stimulate the cause of the Italian Christian Democrat Aldo Moro, assassinated in 1978. Within hours, the Vatican affirmed: "That economic request did not take place at any time." .
A bad reputation that the Vaticanist Darío Menor confirms: “With the
Francis era
a model of greater efficiency and transparency has entered, especially in the control of money that moves, because before it was a joke.
There was no surveillance by the Congregation on the process.
Cash was moving.
It was the house of Tocame Roque.
Now it is more controlled, but the slowness and incompetence continue to be exasperating ”.
Image of Santiago on horseback, Santa Espina Monastery, in Valladiolid.Navia
The income of a cause comes from donations. The expenses can be divided into two items: those of the Diocesan Phase (which can be around 100,000 euros) and those of the Roman Phase, in the Congregation, for which the Vatican in search of greater transparency established in 2016 fixed and confidential rates. The highest are those that must be satisfied by the "recognition of the miracle", which involve an outlay of 18,200 euros. And, later, for the "recognition of virtues or martyrdom", which costs 17,240 euros. We must add the salary of the
Roman
postulator
, a lawyer residing in Rome, between broker and
lobbyist.
, in charge of activating, expediting and favoring the processing of the case in the Vatican, which can charge up to 30,000 euros. Without counting on his assistants. The most prestigious lawyer in the field and dean of the two hundred Roman nominees is the Argentine canonist Silvia Correale (nicknamed the
Monsignorine
in the Vatican
), who has led hundreds of cases since 1992. According to various sources, a process that lasts around 30 years can cost between 100,000 and 400,000 euros. In the end, if there is money left over, it is absorbed by the Vatican Congregation, since it is a “pious cause”, to nurture a “solidarity fund destined for poor causes”.
The Congregation for the Causes of Saints is located at number 10, Pius XII Square, in front of Saint Peter's Basilica. It is one of the dozen dicasteries (ministries) that the Pontiff relies on to govern the Church. In the back wing of the Palace of the Propylaea is the Studium, the
faculty
that prepares the
professionals of the causes of the saints. 200 advisers work in this ministry (the largest number within the Vatican government), under the orders of Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, who has personally refused to participate in this report, although he sent his blessing to the journalist. It has a College of Rapporteurs, the priests on the payroll who follow and direct each cause in Rome. A position that is forbidden to women. And from the so-called Medical Consultation, a team of doctors (men, Italians and Catholics) who meet every 15 days in a secret assembly to analyze two miracles. They throw back two out of every three that they are presented with. At the top of the Congregation there are 20 cardinals and bishops from around the world who meet every other Tuesday and debate an average of four cases per session. If they agree, they send their
nihil obstat
to the Pope. If there is no unanimity, there is no “fumata bianca”. According to the
index ac status causeum
(the register of the state of causes published in Latin by the Vatican), there are around 1,300 “living” causes in the Congregation. Some date back to the 15th century. Those that are more than 30 years old since the death of the postulate are called "historical", they are those that lack living witnesses.
The cause of Brother Salado, drowned in Ecuador while saving children, fits like a glove into one of the three “paths” set by the Vatican to achieve holiness: “The voluntary offering of life to others with the result of certain death. and freely accepted ”. This access to holiness, of a solidarity dye, was incorporated by Francisco in 2017, in his quest to make saints closer to the ground. One of his new generation blesseds is Carlo Acutis, an
Italian
youtuber
who passed away at the age of 15, who has already been credited with a miracle and who has been embalmed for public veneration with his sweatshirt and Nike.
The other two reasons for ascending to the altars are martyrdom (the oldest and most numerous) for religious reasons and hatred of the faith of the executed, and in which the martyr has had to forgive his executioner before dying, not having militancy politics, do not carry arms or resist. The second is to have lived according to some "heroic virtues", a Catholicism in the highest degree that has been widely recognized by his contemporaries. Having what in the factory of saints is called, "reputation for holiness."
In front of the grave of Marta Obregón, candidate for martyrdom and beatification “in defense of the virtue of chastity”, in the Burgos cemetery, there are no signs of “fame”. Tomb number 92 appears dingy, lonely; a poor bouquet of plastic flowers rests on it. The person who has kept his memory alive since work began on his cause in 2006 (as
promoters
are the Kikos, Kiko Argüello's group, who are looking for their first saint), is the 75-year-old priest Saturnino López Santidrián , who after 12 hours of work and fifty interviews (the Kikos also tried unsuccessfully to find the murderer, Pedro Luis Gallego in jail) handed over Obregón's case to the Vatican in 2019.
Satur, as he is known in Burgos, receives in his small office, an old monastic cell, from the Faculty of Theology.
She wants the figure of Marta Obregón to become “a social and imitation model for today's youth, because she was a modern girl, 22 years old, a journalism student who played the guitar;
a very active Catholic (close to the Kikos and Opus) and committed (she wanted to be a missionary), who was brutally murdered at dawn on January 22, 1992, with 14 stab wounds, one in the center of the heart, by refusing to her attacker in defense of her purity.
I believe that Marta's action today has a great repercussion for young people ”.
"How did you come to the conclusion that your resistance against the rapist was heroic?"
"The police inspector and the coroner told me it was a massacre."
And that his resistance reached the extreme.
She defended her chastity to the end, her nails were chipped and broken, bruises on her thighs ...
"Which makes her a martyr ...
-Undoubtedly.
You can be a martyr like those of 1936, and you can be a martyr in
heroic
defense
of a virtue, such as chastity.
Faith gave Marta the strength to defend that virtue.
And if she is a martyr, she no longer needs a miracle to be beatified, although she does need one to be a saint.
We are already studying a score of miraculous events that occurred through his intercession for the future.
"In Burgos the issue of the beatification of Marta Obregón has not been discussed for years," explains
Angélica González, a
journalist from the
Diario de Burgos
, who followed the case. “And many Christians here think that this issue does a disservice to the role of women in the Church. It does not seem very sensible to make a woman a saint for the symbol of her virginity ”. The promoters of the cause, the Kikos, decide not to provide more information about the cause and its financing: "We have no further details that may be of interest to you."
On the morning of April 14, 2021, Father Varona handed over to the Chancellor of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Giacomo Pappalardo, in Rome, the wooden box with the cause of Brother Pedro Manuel Salado. This gave him a receipt with the number 1,242. The long journey of his beatification really began there. Varona knows that she may not live to see its outcome.