Scottish Catholic Observer

Bishop Álvaro del Portillo was Beatified during a large outdoor Mass presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Pilgrims from Europe, Africa and South America gathered in the Valdebebas area of the Spanish capital city to see the Beatification ceremony and Mass.

Pope Francis signed a decree recognising a miracle attributed to the Spanish bishop on July 5 last year. In 2003, a Chilean baby with brain damage suffered a cardiac arrest. The child’s parent prayed to Bishop del Portillo and their child made a full recovery despite doctors trying and failing to resuscitate him for 30 minutes and believing he was dead.

Pope Francis sent a letter on the occasion of the Beatification that was read out on Saturday.

“Blessed Álvaro del Portillo is sending us a very clear message,” it said. “He is telling us to trust in the Lord, that He is our brother, our friend, who never lets us down and is always at our side. He is encouraging us not to be afraid to go against the current and suffer for announcing the Gospel. He is also teaching us that in the simplicity and ordinariness of our daily lives we can find a sure path to holiness. I ask all the Faithful of the Prelature, priests and lay-people, as well as all those who take part in its activities, to please pray for me. At the same time, I give them all my Apostolic Blessing.”

The Holy Father also spoke about the bishop before reciting the Angelus prayer last Sunday saying he hoped that Blessed del Portillo’s exemplary Christian and priestly witness ‘can raise in many the desire to always adhere more to Jesus and the Gospel.’

Bishop del Portillo was born in Madrid in 1914 and in 1935 he joined Opus Dei, an institution of the Catholic Church that had been founded seven years earlier by St Josemaría Escrivá. He received formation directly from the founder and from 1939 he undertook numerous apostolic journeys to various cities in Spain.

On June 25, 1944 he was ordained a priest by the Bishop of Madrid, Leopoldo Eijo y Garay. In the following decade he spread Opus Dei in cities throughout Italy and became the first rector of the

organisation’s university in Rome the Roman College of the Holy Cross, serving a number of Popes during his time there and taking a role during the Second Vatican Council.

Following the death of Opus Dei’s founder in 1975, Bishop del Portillo became its second leader. In 1990, he was named a bishop by St Pope John Paul II, receiving Episcopal ordination in St Peter’s Basilica on January 6 1991. He died in Rome in the early hours of March 23, 1994, just hours after returning from a pilgrimage to Holy Land

Bishop Javier Echevarria Rodriguez, the current prelate of Opus Dei, paid tribute to his predecessor.

“He knew how to be very human when treating people, in the work that he did, knowing that his work was also a springboard, an aid to approach God and to be with God,” he said. “He helped us; he understood and encouraged us and at the same time he was greatly interested in all things that affected us. He didn’t feel distant from us or indifferent.”

Blessed Álvaro del Portillo’s influence was reflected in the number of different nationalities present in Madrid last week.

“We have come from Kenya to be here,” a financial analyst from Nairobi said. “He came to Kenya in 1989 and we are very happy; we want to emulate his life and live according to the teachings of the Church.”