Apostolic Letter on the Beatification of Alvaro del Portillo.
Litterae Apostolicae
Venerabili Dei Servo Alvaro del Portillo y Diez de Sollano, Episcopo tit. Vitensi, Praelato Praelaturae Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei, Beatorum honores decernuntur.
FRANCISCUS PP.
Ad perpetuam rei memoriam.
“Regnare Christum volumus!”. Brevis haec sententia, quam Venerabilis Dei Servus Alvarus del Portillo ex ore Sancti Iosephmariae acceperat quamque lemma voluit episcopalis sui stemmatis fieri, desiderium eius ardentissimum patefacit: percupiebat enim ipse ut Dominus noster in summitate collocaretur cunctarum humanarum navitatum per sanctificationem laboris operisque cuiusque diei.
Ecclesia germen et initium constituit Regni Christi in terris (cfr Conc. Oecum. Vat. II, Const. dogm. de Ecclesia Lumen Gentium, n. 5), cuius plenitudo effecta erit solummodo cum dies Domini advenerit. Propterea, verba repetens “regnare Christum volumus!” Venerabilis Dei Servus Alvarus del Portillo suam declarabat voluntatem enixe contendendi ad Ecclesiam aedificandam super firmam petram Romani Pontificis, Petri Successoris, qui est “supremus omnium christifidelium pastor et doctor” (ibid., n. 25), quaerens in vita sua ad effectum deducere verba quae ab Operis Dei Conditore didicerat: “Omnes cum Petro ad Iesum per Mariam!”
Alvarus del Portillo, tertius ex octo filiis, natus est Matriti in Hispania ab honestis vereque christianis coniugibus Raimundo et Clementina die XI mensis Martii anno MCMXIV. Titulum obtinuit academicum Adiutoris Operum Publicorum necnon gradum doctoris in Re Machinaria Civili, in Philosophia (sectione historica) et in Iure Canonico. Die VII mensis Iulii anno MCMXXXV Operi Dei sese adscripsit, cupiens plane vivere christianam vocationem per sanctificationem sui laboris professionalis suorumque quotidianorum officiorum, simul quaerens collegas et alios multos ad Deum attrahere.
Confestim Sanctus Iosephmaria hunc habuit Dei Servum utpote
studiosissimum collaboratorem suum in rebus Operis Dei curandis eiusque propagatione quadraginta fere per annos. Die XXV mensis Iunii anno MCMXLIV sacerdotalem recepit ordinationem. Anno vero MCMXLVI Romae consedit. Elucet quoque Venerabilis Servi Dei servitium erga Ecclesiam in alacri eius navitate in munera obeunda sibi ab Apostolica Sede commissa, officium nempe Consultoris Romanae Curiae Dicasteriorum, praesertim vero ob suam actuosam participationem in Concilii Vaticani II laboribus. Die XV mensis Septembris anno MCMLXXV nominatus est primus Sancti Iosephmariae successor. Die autem XXVIII mensis Novembris anno MCMLXXXII sanctus Ioannes Paulus II erexit Opus Dei in Praelaturam personalem, christifideles laicos et sacerdotes saeculares complectentem, atque Venerabilem Servum Dei Alvarum del Portillo, primum huius ecclesiasticae circumscriptionis Praelatum nominavit. Die VII mensis Decembris anno MCMXC constitutus Episcopus titulo Vitensis, die VI mensis Ianuari anno MCMXCI episcopalem ordinationem accepit in Basilica Vaticana Sancti Petri per eiusdem Sancti Pontificis manuum impositionem.
Hic Servus Dei bonus ac fidelis pie obiit diluculo die XXIII mensis Martii anno MCMXCIV, paucis horis post reditum suum a peregrinatione in Terram Sanctam, ubi visitaverat loca in quibus Dominus Iesus his in terris moratus est. Illo ipso die Sanctus Ioannes Paulus II ante eius corpus oravit, in ecclesia praelatitia Sanctae Mariae de Pace positum.
Sanctitatis fama Venerabilis Dei Servi Alvari del Portillo, iam late diffusa eo adhuc vivente, post mortem omnes per orbis terras dilata est. Anno MMIV, Venerabiles Fratres Nostri Camillus S.R.E. Cardinalis Ruini, Urbis Vicarius, atque Xaverius Echevarría, Episcopus titularis Cilibiensis, Operis Dei Praelatus, duos inchoaverunt processus, utrumque principalem, apud Tribunalia Vicariatus Urbis et Praelaturae Operis Dei super vita, virtutibus et fama sanctitatis Servi Dei. Approbata utriusque processus iuridica validitate per Decretum Congregationis de Causis Sanctorum, Congressus Peculiaris Consultorum Theologorum prospero cum exitu factus est die X mensis Februarii anno MMXII de Venerabilis Servi Dei exercitio heroico virtutum de eiusque fama sanctitatis, de quibus sententiam protulerunt faventem etiam Purpurati Patres et Episcopi, in Sessione Ordinaria die V mensis Iunii anno MMXII congregati. Praedecessor Noster Benedictus XVI Decretum de his rebus promulgari iussit die XXVIII mensis Iunii anno MMXII.
Annis vero MMVIII et MMIX instructus est processus apud Curiam archidioecesanam Sancti Iacobi in Chile circa miram, ut dicitur, pueri sanationem, intercessioni Servi Dei tributam annoque MMIII factam. Rite peractis omnibus iure statutis, Coetus medicorum Dicasterii, in congressione die XVIII mensis Octobris anno MMXII habita, hanc sanationem inexplicabilem declaravit secundum hodiernam scientiam medicam. Die XV mensis Decembris anno MMXII Congressus Peculiaris Consultorum Theologorum hanc declaravit sanationem divinitus patratam adque Servi Dei intercessionem attribuendam; quod responsum affirmativum et Patres Cardinales et Episcopi protulerunt in Sessione Ordinaria die IV mensis Iunii anno MMXIII habita. Quamobrem Nos die V mensis Iulii anno MMXIII mandavimus ut Congregatio de Causis Sanctorum Decretum de miraculo evulgaret atque statuimus ut beatificationis ritus die XXVII mensis Septembris anno MMXIV Matriti celebraretur.
Hodie igitur, in praedicta urbe, de mandato Nostro Venerabilis Frater Noster Angelus S.R.E. Cardinalis Amato, Praefectus Congregationis de Causis Sanctorum, textum Litterarum Apostolicarum legit, quibus Nos Venerabilem Dei Servum Alvarum del Portillo y Diez de Sollano in Beatorum numerum adscribimus:
Nos, vota Fratrum Nostrorum Augustini S.R.E. Cardinalis Vallini, Nostri Vicarii Generalis pro Romana dioecesi, Xaverii Echevarría Rodríguez, Episcopi titulo Cilibiensis, Praelaturaepersonalis Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei Praelati, necnon plurimorum aliorum Fratrum in Episcopatu multorumque christifidelium explentes, de Congregationis de Causis Sanctorum consulto, auctoritate Nostra Apostolica facultatem facimus ut Venerabilis Servus Dei Alvarus del Portillo y Diez de Sollano, episcopus, Praelaturae Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei Praelatus, Pastor secundum cor Iesu, Ecclesiae assiduus minister, Beati nomine in posterum appelletur, eiusque festum die duodecima Maii in locis et modis iure statutis quotannis celebrari possit. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.
Quae vero per has Litteras statuimus, ea firma sint in perpetuum,
contrariis quibuslibet non obstantibus. Magni aestimantes Beati amorem et humilem assiduumque ministerium maxime erga suos in Opere Dei sodales, iisdem et cunctis fidelibus exemplum eius commendamus.
Datum Romae, apud Sanctum Petrum, sub anulo Piscatoris,
die XXVII mensis Septembris, anno Domini MMXIV, Pontificatus
Nostri secundo.
Petrus Card. Parolin
Secretarius Status
Loco + Plumbi
Prot. Secret. Status, n. 19.900
Below is a translation from the Latin of the Pontifical Brief:
Apostolic Brief
The honors proper to the Blessed are granted to the Venerable Servant of God Alvaro del Portillo y Diez de Sollano, titular bishop of Vita, prelate of the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei.
POPE FRANCIS
Ad perpetuam rei memoriam
“Regnare Christum volumus!”, “We want Christ to reign!” The deepest yearning of Venerable Alvaro del Portillo is expressed in this aspiration that he heard from the lips of Saint Josemaría Escrivá and chose as the motto for his episcopal coat of arms. He sought to place Christ at the summit of all human activities, through the sanctification of work and ordinary activities.
The Church is the seed and beginning of the Kingdom of Christ on earth (see Vatican II, Dogmatic const. on the Church Lumen Gentium, no. 5), which will attain its fullness only when the day of the Lord arrives. Therefore in repeating “regnare Christum volumus!” the venerable servant of God Alvaro del Portillo manifested his desire to contribute with all his strength to the building up of the Church on the solid rock of the Roman Pontiff, the successor of Peter, “supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful” (ibid., no. 25). Thus throughout his life he strove to incarnate the teaching he had received from the founder of Opus Dei: “Omnes cum Petro ad Iesum per Mariam!”
Alvaro del Portillo was born in Madrid (Spain) on March 11, 1914, the third of eight children of Ramón and Clementina, fervent Christians and an exemplary couple. He obtained the academic degrees of Assistant of Public Works, doctor in Civil Engineering, in History, and in Canon Law. On July 7, 1935 he joined Opus Dei, eager to live his Christian vocation fully, by sanctifying his professional work and ordinary duties, and bringing his work companions and many other souls to God.
Soon he became Saint Josemaría’s strongest support, and remained at his side for almost forty years, assisting in the government and apostolic development of Opus Dei. On June 25, 1944, he was ordained a priest. In 1946 he took up residence in Rome. His service to the Church was also shown in his generous dedication to the tasks entrusted to him by the Holy See, as a consultor for various organisms of the Roman Curia, and especially in his active participation in the work of the Second Vatican Council. On September 15, 1975, he was named the first successor of Saint Josemaría. On November 28, 1982, Saint John Paul II erected Opus Dei as a personal prelature, made up of lay faithful and secular priests, and named the venerable servant of God Alvaro del Portillo as first prelate of that ecclesiastical circumscription. On December 7, 1990 he was named titular bishop of Vita, and on January 6, 1991 he received episcopal ordination at the hands of the same Holy Pontiff in Saint Peter’s Basilica.
Our Lord called this good and faithful servant of his into his presence on the morning of March 23, 1994, a few hours after returning from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he had visited the places that our Lord Jesus had walked with his footsteps on earth. That same day, Saint John Paul II went to pray before his mortal remains, in the prelatic church of Our Lady of Peace.
Venerable Alvaro del Portillo’s reputation for sanctity, already wide-spread in his lifetime, reached universal extension after his death. In the year 2004, our venerable brothers Camillo Ruini, Cardinal Vicar of Rome, and Javier Echevarría, titular bishop of Cilibia, and prelate of Opus Dei, began, before the Tribunal of the Vicariate of Rome and the Tribunal of the prelature of Opus Dei, two exploratory processes—both equally principal—on the life, virtues, and reputation for holiness of the servant of God. The Congregation for the Causes of the Saints having declared the validity of those processes, on February 10, 2012, the Congress of Theological Consultors responded affirmatively to the question of the exercise of heroic virtues and the reputation for sanctity of the servant of God. The cardinals and bishops, gathered in the Ordinary Session of June 5, 2012, gave the same pronouncement. On June 2 of that same year our predecessor, Benedict XVI, ordered the publication of the corresponding decree.
During the years 2008 and 2009, the Curia of the Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile investigated the process of the presumably miraculous cure of a boy in the year 2003, which was attributed to the intercession of the servant of God. Having fulfilled the requirements required by law, on October 18, 2012 the Medical Consultors of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints determined that the cure was inexplicable for current medical science; the Special Congress of Theological Consultors—on December 15, 2012—declared that this cure was a work of God and was due to the intercession of his servant; and the Ordinary Session of cardinals and bishop—on June 4, 2013—gave the same affirmative opinion. For these reasons, on July 5, 2013 we ordered that the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints promulgate the decree on the miracle and we established that the rite of beatification would take place in Madrid, on September 27, 2014.
Today, in the cited city, our venerable brother Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, reads by our mandate the text of the Apostolic Letter, with which we inscribed among the blessed the venerable servant of God Alvaro del Portillo y Diez de Sollano:
We, welcoming the desire of our brothers Agostino Vallini, Cardinal Vicar for Rome, and Javier Echevarría Rodríguez, titular bishop of Cilibia, prelate of Opus Dei, as well as of many other brothers in the episcopate, and of numerous faithful, after having listened to the opinion of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, with our apostolic authority grant the faculty that the venerable servant of God Alvaro del Portillo y Diez de Sollano, bishop, prelate of the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, a pastor to the measure of Christ’s Heart and diligent servant of the Church, henceforth is to be called blessed, and his feast celebrated each year, on the 12th of May, in the places and in the way established by law. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
What we have decreed with the present letter we wish to remain firmly established now and in the future, notwithstanding anything to the contrary. With great appreciation for the Blessed’s loving, humble and constant ministry, above all with members of Opus Dei, for these and all the faithful we set forth his example.
Given in Rome, close to Saint Peter, and sealed with the ring of the Fisherman, September 27, 2014, the second year of Our Pontificate.
By order of the Supreme Pontiff
Pietro Card. Parolin
Secretary of State
L. + S. Prot. Secret. of State, no. 19.900
Romana, n. 61, July-December 2015, p. 244-250.