The Pope recognizes the martyrdom of James Miller, murdered in Guatemala in 1982
Pope Francis signed the decree recognizing the "martyrdom" of James Miller, of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, known as Brothers de La Salle, who was assassinated in Guatemala in 1982, and for which he will be proclaimed blessed.
Francisco signed yesterday, in the audience that granted the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Angelo Beciu, several decrees, among them the one that recognizes the martyrdom "in hatred of the faith" of Miller, born in Stevens Point (USA). United) on September 21, 1944.
The religious was sent in August 1969 to a missionary school of the De La Salle Brothers in Bluefields, Nicaragua, where he was appointed director in 1974, but left the country in July 1979, at the time of the Sandinista revolution.
In January 1981 he was assigned to the De La Salle School in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, and also worked at the Indigenous Center, where young Mayan Indians from rural areas studied and trained in agriculture.
Two years later, on the afternoon of February 13, 1982, when he was working on the construction of a wall of the Indigenous Center, he was shot several times by a group of three men with their faces covered.
His death was always related to his opposition to recruiting the Indians for the Army.
The declaration of "martyrdom" is decisive for the beatification, since then it is not necessary to recognize a miracle.
