A Filipino bishop who is known for his service and generosity to the poor is on the road to possible canonization.
The Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome has opened the process for the possible beatification of the late Archbishop Teofilo Camomot of Cebu, according to MetroCebu News.
Father Mhar Vincent Balili, vice postulator for Archbishop Camomot’s cause, said the congregation said it will give attention to the cause.
If Rome approves the diocesan process, the diocese will submit a “positio,” which is basically a biography of the archbishop, establishing that he lived a life of heroic virtue.
Father Balili said they have “many testimonies” from people on the favors they received after praying to Archbishop Camomot, the news outlet said. But they have yet to find evidence that someone recovered from a major illness because of the late archbishop’s intercession. Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma has ordered all parishes to say a prayer for the late archbishop’s beatification on a regular basis.
The website of the Daughters of St. Theresa, which Archbishop Camomot founded, notes:
Claims of miracles attributed to Msgr. Camomot circulated after he was reportedly seen in two different places at the same time while he was still serving the clergy of Cebu, according to Lungsoranon, the official newsletter of the Cebu church.
Archbishop Palma also recommended that the faithful go on pilgrimage to the late archbishop’s tomb in the motherhouse of the Daughters of St. Theresa in Barangay Valladolid, Carcar City. According to a video on the website of the Daughters of St. Theresa, the archbishop’s body was found incorrupt when it was transferred from a Catholic cemetery to the motherhouse in 2009.
Archbishop Camomot was born in Barangay Cogon, Carcar on March 3, 1914. He was the third of eight children born to Luis and Angela Bastida Camomot. He died in a car accident in San Fernando town on Sept. 27, 1988.
"There were many stories about the Archbishop’s Francisan-like poverty," says a biography on the sisters’ website. Cebu archbishop emeritus Cardinal Ricardo Jamin Vidal once said that "on one occasion he noticed that Archbishop Camomot was not wearing his pectoral cross…. Curious, he asked Monsignor Camomot about it. He made some excuse. Later a priest told the cardinal that the archbishop had pawned his cross to give some money to the poor. The cardinal later gave him a new cross and told him not to give it away."
And today we celebrate...