Pope Francis Opens Way for Beatification of El Salvador's Oscar Romero

Pope Francis Monday lifted a ban on the beatification of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. He said that there are no doctrinal problems to block the procedure anymore.

El Salvador's Catholic bishops have invited the Pope to visit the country and beatify the slain Archbishop Oscar Romero, The Irish Catholic reports. Archbishop Jose Escobar Alas and three others met with Pope Francis in Rome on May 9 and extended the invitation. During the meeting, the Pontiff assured them that Romero's "sainthood cause was proceeding well"; however, he gave no timescale for completion of the same.

"We ask the Lord for the speedy beatification of Archbishop Romero and that the Pope comes here" to celebrate the ceremony, Archbishop Escobar said.

Beatification, or declaring a person "blessed", is the required prelude to full sainthood.

In 1980, Oscar Romero - who is one of the greatest heroes of the liberation theology movement in Latin America - was shot down while rejoicing at a Mass. Liberation Theology is an interpretation of Christian faith from a poor man's perspective.

His fault was that he had spoken out against authoritarianism by the army of El Salvador at the beginning of the country's bloody civil war (1980-1992) between the right-wing government and leftist separatists, Associated Press reports.

According to BBC, the Roman Catholic Church believed that Romero had Marxist ideas and therefore, it blocked the process of beatification of the slain Archbishop.

However, Pope Francis Monday told the media that he hopes for a swift beatification process for the late Archbishop.

"For me Romero is a man of God. There are no doctrinal problems and it is very important that [the beatification] is done quickly," he said.