Pope Francis received pilgrims from El Salvador at the Vatican, urging them to follow in the footsteps of the martyrs.
(Vatican News Network)Pope Francis received pilgrims from El Salvador at the Vatican on October 14. They made a pilgrimage to Rome to thank the four martyrs who were beatified in El Salvador in January. The martyrs were: the Jesuit Father Rutilio Grande García, killed on March 22, 1977, and the laity Manuel Solórzano and Nelson Lemus, who died with him ; Father Cosme Spessotto, a Franciscan who was killed in El Salvador’s civil war in 1980.
“The martyrs are the gratuitous grace of God, the most precious gift of God to his Church, because in them the great love that Jesus showed us on the cross was realized,” the Pope said. This is also a grace for the “Pilgrimage Church of El Salvador and the Universal Church”.
The Pope referred in particular to the discourse of Archbishop Óscar Romero at the funeral Mass of Father Grande on March 14, 1977, that the “first fruits of the martyrdom of those blessed saints are The Church has regained unity.” “Let us try to understand this Church, let us be inspired by this love, let us live this faith, and I assure you, there are solutions to our great problems,” the archbishop said at the end of his sermon. The Pope noted that this might be a good way to “contemplate” in prayer what God has said to the Church in El Salvador, through the blood of these witnesses.
The Pope then said that at this moment we are called to reflect on the fellowship of the Church. “Among these martyrs, we have the best example of ‘walking side by side'”, this is what “each of you, bishops, priests and pastors, pray to the Lord today”.
The Pope concluded by reminding those present that “the cross of Jesus is the cross of all men, the cross of the Church, which, as the body of Christ, follows him unto the sacrifice”. In the heart of the Pope, there has always been the most vulnerable people who will never be forgotten. “We want to encourage each other,” he said, “to think of those in difficult circumstances among our people: the poorest, the prisoners, the helpless, the sick and the abandoned. We thank God for letting We can move forward with the strength of faith in the service of our people.”
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