October 06, 2002

As the postulator, how would you describe devotion to Blessed Josemaría Escrivá?

I would call it a popular devotion, considering the 125,000 written accounts of favors attributed to his intercession that have arrived at the Postulation Office over the !!!years. It is a very large number if you consider that many others have not written the Postulation Office. Furthermore, these accounts reveal a worldwide devotion shared by people from diverse cultural and social backgrounds.

The miracle approved by the Congregation is the healing of Dr. Manuel Nevado Rey. Are there other documents on cases of extraordinary cures attributed to the new saint?

We have documentation on more than 48 extraordinary cures of people through Blessed Josemaría's intercession, with only two being members of Opus Dei. They are cures that cannot be explained scientifically. Eighteen of these cures have been described, with the permission of those involved, in a book entitled Cures Through the Intercession of Josemaría Escrivá.

In the past some people have questioned the fast pace of the cause of canonization of Blessed Josemaría.

At the Postulation Office, the answer would often be that this was the first cause opened under the reform John Paul II introduced in 1983, making the process less cumbersome, and that we hoped future processes could be carried out in less time. And this is exactly what is happening.

Can you give us some examples of faster causes?

The cause of Padre Pio lasted 19 years, while Josemaría Escrivá's has taken 21 years. The same norms have facilitated, for example, the beatification of 'El Pelé' in 1997, 4 years after his cause began in 1994; the Italian couple Beltrami Quattrocchi, 7 years after (1994-2001), and Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, the first Puerto Rican to reach the altars, 9 years after (1992-2001). Among other cases that could be mentioned is the cause of Mother Teresa. Two years after her death, the diocesan phase had already been finalized. We hope to see her raised to the altars soon.