Vatican: Salvadoran Archbishop Romero to Be Made Saint

The head of the Catholic church made the announcement after a meeting with cardinals.

Pope Francis has announced that Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero had been put on the path to sainthood.

The Pope stated that Romero should be canonized or declared a saint following a theological and medical commission's approval of a miracle attributed to the late archbishop. The head of the Catholic church made the announcement at a meeting of cardinals.

Details of the miracle were not revealed, but earlier comments had been made that it was being reviewed.

Pope Francis remarked that any clergyman who stood up for the poorest of the poor in the face of right-wing oppression should be a model for Catholics.

The pontiff previously declared Romero a martyr in 2015. Pope Francis decreed that Romero was killed "in odium fidei."

The clergyman was shot and killed during Mass in a hospital chapel on March 24, 1980.

Romero is an iconic figure in Latin America due to his advocacy for the most vulnerable members of society.

The late archbishop was outspoken about destitution in the Central American country, often renouncing poverty in his homilies. El Salvador's military dictatorship opposed Romero's preachings against repression of the poor by the army.

Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Latin American, remarked, in 2015, that Romero was killed “in hatred of the faith.”

Pope Paul VI has also been placed on the path to sainthood.