Ex-colleague bats for Fr. Romano’s canonization

For his work with the poor and his fight against the tyranny of the Marcos regime, Fr. Rudy Romano should be canonized as a saint, a friend  of the kidnapped priest said yesterday.

“There are two people I would like to canonize as a saint, Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated for his human rights advocacy work and Fr. Rudy Romano who was kidnapped (for the same reason),” Fr. Emerado Maningo said.

In an interview minutes before the 5:30 Mass at Redemptorist Church yesterday afternoon, Fr. Maningo called on the country’s youth to commit to fighting against injustice like Fr. Romano and Archbishop Romero.

Romano was kidnapped in Tisa, barangay Labangon, Cebu City on July 11, 1985 by suspected army troops.

Fr. Maningo said he and Romano, who was four years older than him, were close during their seminarian days.

In celebrating the 28th year of Fr. Romano’s disappearance, the Redemptorist fathers hope they can recover his remains.

Fr. Maningo said Fr. Romano fought for just wages of workers and protecting the welfare of the fisherfolk and urban poor.

“We are here to challenge the youth and every Filipino to continue the fight that Fr. Romano waged when he was still with us. We are not Redemptorist priests if we don’t continue what Fr. Romano fought for,” Maningo said.

Fr. Maningo said they believe the military had a hand in Fr. Romano’s disappearance owing to the deaths of their witness and one of their lawyers Al Surigao, who was killed in a grenade explosion in his office.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma described Fr. Rudy Romano as a defender of human dignity.

“Fr. Romano has contributed much in terms of human rights, rendering concrete assistance and social service to the less-privileged Cebuanos,” he said.

In a statement, Palma said the Cebu faithful should strive to have a heart for the poor and the marginalized whose poverty denied them the dignity they should have as human beings.

The Cebu City government installed a marker at Tisa, Labangon, to mark the exact place where Fr. Romano was kidnapped. Correspondents Christine Emily L. Pantaleon and Michelle Joy L. Padayhag