Madrid, Spain, Apr 12, 2007 / 09:50 am
According to the Spanish daily “El Diario de Galicia,” Father Manuel Gomez, a diocesan priest who was killed in Brazil in 1924, will be beatified in October, after Pope Benedict XVI approved his cause of martyrdom last December.
Father Gomez, who was from the Spanish region of Galicia, was killed in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in 1924 together with Adilio Daronche, his 15 year-old altar server. Both were tortured and killed by one of the groups that were fighting over land near the border with Uruguay.
Father Gomez was born in 1877. He was ordained a priest in 1902 and until 1913 he worked in the Archdiocese of Braga in Portugal. He was known for his extensive pastoral and social apostolates. He will be the second priest from Galicia to be beatified after suffering martyrdom. The first was Father Blanco, who was killed in Japan in the 19th century.
The Church in Brazil has promoted his beatification cause due to the devotion of the people, which surged after his martyrdom.