Saint Toribio Romo
Prêtre
mexicain (✝ 1928)
Né en 1900 à Sainte
Anne de Guadalupe dans le diocèse de Guadalajara, Toribio Romo González, curé
de Tequila, fut assassiné le 25 février 1928.
A voir aussi:
Toribio
Romo González (1900-1928) en
espagnol
Biographie site du Vatican en espagnol
Homélie du pape Jean-Paul II pour la canonisation de
27 saints le 21 mai 2000.
À Tequila, au territoire de Guadalajara au Mexique, en 1928, saint Turibio
Romo, prêtre et martyr, mis à mort en haine du sacerdoce durant la persécution
religieuse en ce pays.
Martyrologe
romain
Saint Toribio Romo
González
- 25 February
- 21 May as one of the Martyrs of the Mexican Revolution
Profile
Ordained at age 21; he had to receive special dispensation from the
Vatican to be ordained so young. Parish
priest in Tequila, Jalisco, archdiocese of Guadalajara, Mexico. Parish
priest in Agua Caliente, Mexico. Known for a great devotion to the Eucharist.
Murdered during the Mexican Revolution for being a priest. One of the Martyrs of the Cristero Wars.
Born
- 16 April 1900 in Santa Ana de Guadalupe, Jalostotitlán parish, San Juan de los Lagos diocese, Jalisco, Mexico
- shot in the back around 5am on Saturday 25 February 1928 in his rectory in Agua Caliente, Jalisco, Mexico
- relics in the Santa Ana de Guadalupe Church, Jalisco
- 7 March 1992 by Pope John Paul II (decree of martyrdom)
Sunday 21
May 2000 by Pope John Paul II
Saint Toribio Romo: Mexican Martyr and Angel to
Migrants
Santo
Toribio Romo – in Latin, Saint Thuribius – was a humble parish priest born in
the Mexican state of Jalisco who has become one of the most venerated saints
among the Mexicans. Unlike the Santa Muerte and Jesus Malverde, profiled
here on Mexico Unexplained in episodes 9 and 7 respectively, Saint Toribio was
a real living person who is formally recognized by the Catholic Church and was
canonized by then Pope John Paul the Second in the year 2000.
Our story begins in the deserts of the American Southwest in the early
1980s. We find a young man from Zacatecas stranded in the desert
somewhere north of the US Mexico border near Mexicali. His name is Jesús
Buendía Gaytán. A few days of wandering, lost, exhausted from the heat
and with no water, a truck approached Jesús when he thought all hope was
lost. Out of the truck emerged a blue-eyed Mexican man in his 20s, who
offered Jesús water and food and told him of a place to get work. When
Jesús asked the stranger what he wanted for payment, the young, man told him
that when he had enough money to return to Mexico, to look for him at a small
church in the town of Santa Ana de Guadalupe in Jalisco where he served as a
parish priest. Years later, Jesús did just that and was amazed to see the
portrait of his desert savior hanging over the altar of town’s church.
The only problem here was that the Good Samaritan who had helped him had died
some 50 years before that desert encounter. There are many other stories
of a man who fits Toribio Romo’s description helping migrants in the
desert. Sometimes he appears to offer tangible things like water or
money. Sometimes he appears to console the travelers or encourage them to
keep going. Sometimes he has even been known to encourage people to
return to Mexico. Sometimes he appears fully frocked as a priest and
sometimes wearing the simple clothes of a Mexican cowboy. In all cases,
he is there to help with the journey.
No one knows how Toribio Romo became the de facto patron saint of border
crossers or those undertaking perilous journeys. While the Catholic
Church recognizes him as a saint, they do not recognize him as the patron saint
of migrants, a role he has assumed seemingly spontaneously. The Vatican’s
official saint for migrants, ironically, is the first American citizen to
become a saint, Mother Frances Cabrini, an Italian nun who helped Italian
immigrants in the US in the late 19th Century. As Mexicans
have a hard time identifying with Mother Cabrini, Santo Toribio has filled the
void and has been growing in popularity as the patron saint of Mexican migrants
ever since his canonization.
So who was Toribio Romo, the man? He was born in the year 1900 in
the small farming town of Santa Ana de Guadalupe in Jalisco a little ways off
the main road leading from Guadalajara to San Juan de los Lagos. He was
from a very poor family, but early on young Toribio stood out from the other
children for his intelligent and contemplative nature. From an early age
he wanted to go to seminary and become a priest but his family hesitated in
sending him away. In 1912 Romo entered the Auxiliary Seminary about 25
miles away in San Juan de los Lagos. Ten years later he became a priest,
one of the youngest to be ordained in Mexico which required special permission
from the Vatican.
Toribio Romo has been described as a deep thinker and scholar,
constantly challenged by matters of faith and always examining his
conscience. He was known for having a fine mind and gentle nature.
He also loved writing. In an ironic twist, in 1920, while still in
seminary, Toribio Romo published a play called “Let’s Go North!” a comedy about
the perils of crossing the border to find work in the United States and what
would happen to a man after spending too much time on the other side of the
border. Like many Catholic priests of the time, Romo discouraged people
from leaving their small towns to seek work in the United States. His
one-act play consists of two characters, the Americanized Mexican Don Rogaciano
who returns to his town with money and fancy clothes, and an attitude of
superiority and worldliness, and Sancho, a smart-mouthed local who never left
Mexico. Don Rogaciano tries to impress the townsfolk with his command of
English and his city ways, and denounces village priests as “money-grubbing
retrograde obscurantists.” In the end Sancho gets the best of Rogaciano
by beating him with a cane, but Toribio Romo’s main message of the play can be
found in some of the final words of the Sancho character when he says
this: “Take a good look at what becomes of the Mexican who goes
north. He ends up a man without religion, without a country or home… a
coward, a feminized man who is incapable of feeling shame for having abandoned
his responsibilities to his family. Despite this, the roads are packed
with Mexicans headed toward the United States in search of bitter bread.
Everywhere you hear the rallying cry: ‘Let’s go north!’”
To understand the saint’s life and death, we have to examine the times
in which he was alive. Toribio Romo lived during a dark and often
unexamined period in Mexican history. As a young priest Father Romo found
himself in the middle of the Cristero War also known as the Cristero Rebellion
or La Cristiada, a brutal internal conflict that lasted between 1926 and 1929
and pitted rural Catholic lay people and clergymen against the forces of the
anti-Catholic, anti-clerical central government in Mexico City headed by
President Plutarco Calles. Calles sought to enforce the anti-clerical
articles of the new Constitution of 1917 produced by the Mexican Revolution and
enacted legislation to reduce the power of the Church. This so-called
Calles Law was seen as a continuation of the long struggle of Church versus
State that dated back to La Reforma of the mid-19th Century.
Under this law restrictions were placed on the Catholic clergy and the power of
the Church was further limited. Popular religious celebrations were
suppressed in local communities along with the number of priests allowed to
serve in Mexico as a whole. A few uprisings happened in 1926 and
full-scale violence ensued by 1927, most notably in the countryside of the
states of Zacatecas, Jalisco and Michoacan. By 1927 all priests were
prohibited from celebrating the mass and ordered confined to their residences
or to relocate to urban areas. Most clergy did not take part in violence,
although many, like Father Toribio, defied the authorities and continued
performing Catholic rites. The Church hierarchy in Mexico tacitly
supported the grassroots rebellion and the authorities in Rome condemned the
Mexican government. Curiously, two groups from the United States involved
themselves in this war. The Knights of Columbus, a service arm of the
Catholic Church, donated money to the Cristero movement. When the first
donation of the Knights was announced, another group of Americans calling
themselves knights – the Ku Klux Klan – offered President Calles $10,000 to
fight against the Cristeros. By 1928, Dwight Whitney Morrow, the US
Ambassador to Mexico at the time became involved and eventually helped broker a
truce between government forces and the Cristeros. In the end,
approximately a quarter million people died in the fighting, and Toribio Romo
was among them. On Friday, February 24, 1928, just a year before the end
of the war, soldiers broke into the bedroom of Father Romo who had been taking
an afternoon nap. A few tense moments and two bullets later, the humble
priest, who never took up arms or antagonized any uprising against the
authorities, was dead. He was 27 years old.
Father Toribio Romo later became one of the 25 Mexican Martyrs of the
Cristero War honored by the Catholic Church. He was later beatified and then
canonized. Since his canonization in the year 2000 great interest has
developed in the saint and thousands of people flock to the tiny town of Santa
Ana de Guadalupe to visit his shrine and to see where he spent his youth.
As with many shrines in Mexico, supporting businesses have grown up alongside
the attraction to serve the multitudes of pilgrims who come each year.
Where there were no restaurants in Santa Ana, there are now 3, along with an
ice cream shop and many other stores to cater to tourists. It was said by
one of the locals that Santo Toribio managed to accomplish in death what he
couldn’t in life: the local population is more permanent now. The
people of Santa Ana are not forced to go to the United States looking for work,
rather, they now live off the steady income that the tourist trade provides.
The official saint statue of Toribio Romo went on tour to various
Mexican-American parishes in California in 2013. The statue includes a
relic of the saint, a piece of Romo’s ankle bone, encased in glass affixed to
the torso of the statue. People flocked to Indio, Hawthorn, Reseda and
other cities to catch a glimpse of the saint, to thank him or to ask for a
miracle. The traveling saint proved more popular than the Church could
have imagined with thousands of pilgrims showing up at events.
Returning to the migrants in the desert, alone, beaten by the sun,
dehydrated, running from the authorities and threatened by rattlesnakes.
Who comes to them in the middle of the wasteland when all hope is nearly
lost? Is this angelic coyote a mere hallucination or a product of wishful
thinking, or is this mysterious blue-eyed man sent by the divine to help those
unfortunate people along to live a life on earth that for him was cut
short? You decide.
REFERENCES
No book references were used in this episode, only online research. A
recommended movie to see, in Spanish only, about Santo Toribio Romo is “Santo
Toribio Romo: Del Sueño a la Gloria.”
San Turibio Romo Gonzalez Sacerdote e martire
Santa Ana de Guadalupe,
Messico, 16 aprile 1900 - Tequila, Messico, 25 febbraio 1928
Nacque a Santa Ana de Guadalupe, appartenente alla parrocchia di
Jalostotitlán, Jalisco, (Diocesi di San Juan de los Lagos) il 16 aprile del
1900. Vicario con funzioni di parroco a Tequila, Jalisco (Arcidiocesi di
Guadalajara). Sacerdote dal cuore sensibile e di assidua orazione.
Profondamente preso dal mistero dell'Eucarestia chiese molte volte:
"Signore non mi lasciare nemmeno per un giorno senza dire la Messa, senza
abbracciarti nella Comunione". In occasione di una Prima Comunione,
tenendo l'Ostia Sacra nelle sue mani disse: "Signore, accetteresti il mio
sangue che ti offro per la pace della chiesa?". Mentre si trovava ad
"Agua caliente", luogo vicino a Tequila, che serviva come rifugio e
centro del suo apostolato, volle aggiornare i registri parrocchiali. Lavorò
tutto il giorno del venerdí ed anche la notte. Alle cinque della mattina del
sabato 25 febbraio 1928, volle celebrare l'Eucarestia ma, sentendosi molto
stanco e con sonno, preferì dormire un po' per celebrare meglio. Si era appena
addormentato quando un gruppo di contadini e soldati entrarono nella stanza e
uno di questi lo indicò dicendo: "Quello è il sacerdote, uccidetelo",
el Padre Toribio si svegliò impaurito, si sollevò e lo colpirono. Ferito e
vaccillante camminò un po, ma una nuova scarica, alle spalle gli tolse la vita
ed il suo sangue generoso tinse di rosso la terra di questa zona di Jalisco.
Emblema: Palma
Martirologio Romano: In località Tequila nel territorio di
Guadalajara in Messico, san Turibio Romo, sacerdote e martire, che fu ucciso
nell’imperversare della persecuzione in odio del suo sacerdozio.
Per
ordinarlo prete, dato che ha solo 22 anni e qualche mese, ci vuole a norma di
codice la dispensa papale, ma gli inizi del suo ministero non sono dei
migliori. Nella prima parrocchia la gente non lo capisce e gli crea un mucchio
di difficoltà; nella seconda gli proibiscono addirittura di celebrar messa e
recitare il rosario in pubblico. Forse è un po’ troppo schierato dalla parte
dei poveri, forse dà noia a qualcuno, certamente è un elemento che disturba e
che bisogna “tenere a bada”. Lui ingoia, sopporta, soffre in silenzio; al
vescovo ricorre non per chiedere giustizia, ma per spiegare le cose secondo
verità. Il vescovo ascolta e…lo trasferisce: quattro parrocchie in appena
cinque anni e nell’ultima lo manda come parroco perché il clima di quegli anni,
da generalmente caldo, lì si è fatto rovente e nessuno vuole andarci. Anche
così si forma un prete: tra le incomprensioni del parroco, le diffidenze dei
fedeli e le cattiverie delle malelingue. Toribio Romo Gonzalez nasce nel 1900
in una famiglia messicana di umili condizioni, dove davvero si lavora per
mangiare e dove anche i più piccoli devono fare la loro parte. Così nessuno è
più contrario dei genitori al suo ingresso in seminario: perché le sue braccia
si stan facendo robuste e servono per mantenere la famiglia; ma anche perchè
non ci sono soldi per comprare i libri. Fortuna sua che in casa c’è anche
Maria, la sorella maggiore, che si prende cura della sua vocazione, lavorando
nei campi al posto suo e mettendo da parte i soldi per gli studi. E’ forse per
questa povertà che lo accompagna fin dalla nascita, che Toribio, non appena
prete, si schiera dalla parte dei poveri. Nelle varie parrocchie in cui lo
mandano, per prima cosa organizza l’Azione Cattolica, insegna catechismo ai
bambini, ma soprattutto aiuta i poveri e sostiene i lavoratori.. A settembre
del 1927, nel pieno della persecuzione religiosa e della rivolta dei
“cristeros”, diventa parroco di Tequila. Vi porta il suo grande amore per
l’Eucaristia, la sua spiritualità forte, la sua prolungata preghiera: quando
non è in giro ad amministra sacramenti, per trovarlo bisogna cercarlo in
chiesa, ai piedi del tabernacolo. “Non lasciarmi un solo giorno senza
Eucaristia”, è la sua preghiera di ogni giorno, ma intanto diventa un “prete in
incognito”, che battezza, predica e celebra in clandestinità per sfuggire alla
“caccia al prete” che il generale Calles ha instaurato in Messico. A dicembre
1927 il fratello Roman è ordinato prete e il vescovo glielo assegna come
viceparroco: con loro va ad abitare anche la sorella Maria, che continua a
prendersi cura delle due vocazioni di cui è stata “mamma” e li aiuta a fare
catechismo. Hanno stabilito il loro “quartier generale” in una vecchia fabbrica di
tequila, dove celebrano di nascosto. Qui, durante la prima comunione di un gruppetto di
bambini, padre Toribio ha trovato la forza di dire: “Gesù, accetteresti il mio
sangue per la pace del Messico?” All’alba del 25 febbraio 1928, dopo una notte
trascorsa a sistemare i registri parrocchiali, viene svegliato da un gruppo armato
che fa irruzione nella casa che lo ospita e che è guidato da un contadino della
zona. E’ lui ad indicarlo agli altri: “Questo è il prete”. Nella risposta di
Padre Toribio non c’è nulla di eroico: “Sì, sono il prete, ma non uccidermi”.
Lo crivellano di colpi e Maria raccoglie tra le lacrime il suo ultimo respiro.
Su una barella improvvisata il corpo del martire viene portato in piazza ed
esposto allo scherno e alle oscenità dei suoi assassini, ma i parrocchiani
riescono a recuperarlo e a dargli degna sepoltura il giorno dopo, con un
funerale che sembra la “canonizzazione popolare” di padre Toribio. Che di lì a
poco comincia davvero a far miracoli: a lui ricorrono, soprattutto, i malati di
tumore, le donne desiderose di un figlio e gli emigranti, sia regolari che
clandestini per necessità, che nell’attraversare le frontiere si raccomandano a
lui. Alla sua tomba accorrono anche i “vip” e i calciatori, anch’essi
contagiati da quello che i “media” messicani hanno definito la “toribiomania”.
Nessuno riesce a spiegarsi la popolarità che gode questo umile e giovane prete,
mentre fioccano grazie speciali, insieme a veri e propri miracoli, che attirano
nel suo piccolo villaggio natale anche duecento pulman ogni domenica. Giovanni
Paolo II° lo ha beatificato nel 1992 e lo ha proclamato santo il 21 maggio
2000.
Autore: Gianpiero
Pettiti
