Diocesan phase of canonization process for St. Josemaria Escriva’s successor closed

Rome, Italy, Jun 27, 2008 / 13:11 pm

The Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Camilo Ruini, presided this week over the closing of the diocesan phase of the process of canonization for the Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, who was the first successor of St. Josemaria Escriva.

The ceremony took place Thursday at the Lateran Palace in Rome with the current Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Javier Echevarria Rodriguez and members of the prelature in attendance.

During his discourse, Cardinal Ruini recalled that Bishop Del Portillo was “an example of fidelity in the following of the spirit of sanctification in work and in daily life,” and therefore his example should be a stimulus “for many people to be infected with love of God and neighbor.”

Bishop Del Portillo’s cause of canonization was opened on March 5, 2004. The first phase was carried out by two tribunals, one at the Vicariate of Rome and another at the Opus Dei Prelature, which has not yet concluded it sessions.

The next step in the process, once the Opus Dei Prelature concludes its sessions, “is the drafting of the positio, a biography of the candidate for sainthood that shows that he or she has lived the Christian virtues heroically.” It is then presented by the postulator of the cause, Msgr. Flavio Capucci, to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.