In Cuba, a candidate for sainthood goes marching in…
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From the Opium of the People Department comes the news, incredible as it may seem to some ideologues of certain political persuasions, that, last Saturday, in Cuba, a Roman Catholic beatification ceremony was publicly held for José Olallo Valdés (1820-1889), “a member of the Hospitallier Order of Saint John of God, [who] helped the sick and wounded during Cuba’s first war of independence (1868-1878) against Spain. He defied Spanish orders barring members of religious orders from Cuba, and was the sole Hospitallier on the island at the time.” The beatification ceremony for Olallo, which was broadcast on state-controlled Cuban television, was considered the last step before full sainthood for the legendary cleric, who became known as the “poor people’s priest.” (BBC) (L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s news- and doctrine-disseminating publication, offers a biography of Olallo in Spanish here.)
admin @ December 7, 2008