On March 24 this year, as every year, we observe the anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the first bishop killed at the altar since St. Thomas a'Becket eight centuries before.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the murder of Fr. Rutilio Grande, the committed Jesuit whose death bolstered Archbishop Romero's resolve. It also marks 30 years since Romero became archbishop, a baptism by fire as his initiation into the archdiocese. It is the 40th anniversary of Populorium Progressio, a little known encyclical in which Pope Paul VI declared that people in authority, or with special knowledge or power, had increased responsibility to serve the cause of social justice for the underprivileged, a call Archbishop Romero took to heart. He cited the encyclical in 16 different sermons over three and a half years. Later this year, finally, we will mark 90 years since the birth of Oscar Romero. All of this is good cause to reflect over his saintly legacy. This year marks a decade since Romero's cause for canonization was remitted to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, in the Vatican, and it is good to take a moment to review what has happened with Romero's case for sainthood.

Even though it may strike most lay observers like an impenetrable mystery, as enigmatic as the densest Catholic ritual, in reality the process of canonization follows an established play book, and many of the officials responsible for the Romero beatification process are friendly and accessible. Over the years, I have gained a fairly good understanding of the status of Archbishop Romero's process. Canonization is simply a judicial proceeding. "Canon" means code or statute, and refers to the Church's laws, which constitute the oldest legal system in the western world. In ten years of Archbishop Romero's canonization cause, his promoters within the Church have covered the ground that in other times, it took centuries to cover. If you think this is hyperbole, consider that St. Martin de Porres, perhaps Latin America's favorite saint, died in 1639, and he was not beatified until two hundred hears later in 1837. It would be another century before he was canonized in 1962.

In Catholic canonization lingo, there are martyrs and confessors. During the old Roman persecutions, martyrs were people who admitted to being Christians and were killed for refusing to renounce their faith; confessors were those who confessed but were somehow spared. Two thousand years later, the terms are still used. The Church's modern saint-making process entails two formal declarations of holiness: first, "beatification," which pertains to the saint's diocese of origin, and then "canonization" which applies world-wide. Before you can get to step one (beatification), the case is examined in two tribunals, a local one, and a Roman one. Archbishop Romero advanced from the diocesan phase in 1996, and the Roman phase got underway in 1997. Because of delicate political and theological issues, the Romero file has been undergoing exacting scrutiny by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the Church agency that ensures orthodoxy. Between 2001 and 2004, a CDF theological commission studied all of Romero's writings and speeches and concluded that he was "a man of the Church, of the Gospel, and of the Poor." However, further inquiries, apparently involving the influence of Liberation Theologian Jon Sobrino, who was censured by the Vatican in March 2007, have further delayed the green light for Romero's beatification.

What about healings, and halos, and holiness, and miracles? -- you ask. Because Archbishop Romero is posited as a martyr, the Church does not require a lot of the type of evidence that we associate with saints. In fact, when Pope John Paul II was presented with a vial of Romero's blood, still liquefied many years after the assassination, the Pope is said to have responded, "You do not need a miracle to prove he was a martyr." Twenty seven years on, Romero's successor is not taking any chances, and is asking the faithful to report any and all miracles, apparently as insurance.

But, the good news is that Archbishop Romero has made enormous progress. One cleric close to the canonization says that we have covered 95% of the ground we needed to reach. In 2005, the Postulator of Archbishop Romero's cause even ventured to speculate that we might be within six months of his beatification. The fact that two years later, we have not reached the finish line only proves how tough the last mile can be. But, we can see the finish line in the horizon. It is only a matter of time.

* The author is a Salvadoran attorney who lives and works in California. He is the moderator of "San Romero," a Yahoo discussion group, http://espanol.groups.yahoo.com/group/sanromero/ a forum for Romero related topics and debates.