He is an expert canonist and specializes in causes of beatification and canonization. He was born in Navarra, Spain, but resides in Rome for almost 45 years now. Simple and a man who speaks little about his achievements, Fr. Romualdo broke silence and as a way of celebrating his golden anniversary, spoke in this interview:
Q. – What must be done to be a saint?
A. – To be a saint one must love and faithfully comply with the mission one has in this world… as St. Francis de Sales says: living the spirituality of one’s proper state, be he a lay, religious, or a priest. There is no need for miracles or have some ecstasy. It is sufficient to do the will of God in every moment and in every situation of life. There are saints who did not make any extraordinary thing.
Q. – What is required in order for the Church to recognize such sanctity?
A.- To promote the cause of beatification, what is needed is, in the first place, the fame of sanctity. If the person is not known as saintly, he cannot be presented as model of sanctity. And if they attribute to him favors received and miracles observed, it is because they invoke him and believe in his sanctity and power to intercede. If the Church recognizes the heroic virtues of a Christian, he or she is considered “Venerable.” In beatification, the Holy See grants the faculty to render limited veneration to the person within a region or a religious institute. Beatification is a step before canonization wherein the person is publicly declared a saint.
Q. – What process is followed in canonization?
A.- There are various. The most important are: the process on the virtues and fame of sanctity wherein documents and witness as evidences as gathered; the process that proves that no cult whatsoever was given to the servant of God; and the process on some miracles. It is the Pope who declares the heroism of the virtues and of the martyrdom. It is because of these that the causes of Saints require much work and involve big expenses. Many persons are involved: theologians, doctors of medicine, cardinals, bishops and the Pope of course.
Saints yesterday and today
Q. – How did the recognition of sanctity evolved in the Church?
A.- As early as the first centuries of the Church the fame of sanctity was already essential in considering a person a saint. They talked of the fame “signorum et miracolorum.” Without miracles no person was proclaimed a saint. Before the revised canon law of 1983 favors received from the servant of God or the Blessed and miracles had to be presented before the person could be canonized. Two miracles were required and they had to be accompanied by two direct witnesses or five if the testimonies were indirect. Today only one miracle is needed for beatification and another for canonization.
Q. – Fr. Romualdo, who are the saints and blessed of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, whose process you were responsible?
A.- Saint Ezekiel Moreno; the blessed Melchor and Martin, martyrs of Japan; Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki, also a martyr in the same place; the first blessed of Venezuela, Mo. Maria de San Jose; and the blessed Vicente Soler and companions who were martyred in Motril during the religious persecution last century in Spain.
Q. – Are there other causes you have worked upon?
A.- I have worked on the cause of Sister Monica de Jesus who is a venerable; the Mo. Mariana de San Jose, founder of the Augustinian Recollects [nuns]; Fr. Mariano Gazpio, a missionary in China; Sister Cleusa, an Augustinian Recollect missionary who assassinated in the mission of Labrea; the Mo. Antonia de Jesus, founder of the convents of Augustinian Recollects of Andalucia; Simi Cohen, a Jewish nun who as a religious was named, Ma. Dolores del Amor de Dios; Dionisia and Celilia Talangpaz, foundresses of the Congregation of Augustinian Recollect Sisters [Philippines]; the Mo. Esperanze Ayerbe, one of the foundresses of the Augustinian Recollect Missionaries; and Fr. Jenaro Fernandez, who a vicar general of the Order and whose cause is now being promoted by the new postulator, Fr. Samson, Silloriquez.
Romualdo Rodrigo Lozano was born in Caseda (Navarra), Spain, on August 20, 1932.Q. – Being the postulator of the Augustinian Recollects how come you also attend to causes other than those of the Order?
A.- Indeed I have promoted other causes, more than fifty of them. One of the reasons is that I was the only Spaniard advocating for the saints and, the other is because I prepared the manual of instruction on the process of canonization which was published in Spanish and Italian. It was much welcomed because by then there were no other guides existing. It was widely disseminated especially in Spain, Latin America and in Italy. It was used as textbook in the school of postulators which functions in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and I would say, in the instruction of almost all the causes of beatification.
Q. – You authored the “Manual de las Causas de Beatificacion y Canonization,” how did the idea begin and what repercussion does the book have?
A.- Before dedicating myself to the causes of the saints, I obtained the title of advocate of the Rota, I have worked as judge instructor and by merit in the tribunal of the Vicariate of Rome. I was also a defender of the bond of the Roman Rota. I realized that there were many lacunae in the declaration of the witnesses of the causes and that the instructors – instead of allowing the witnesses to speak and gathering their words in the process – were frequently using indirect language. Realizing that I had the experience, I thought I had the capacity to write a manual and thus contribute in some way to the preparation of the Causes of the Saints. The fact is, the manual was unanimously welcome and went through various editions, two en Spanish and three in Italian. I find it difficult to estimate the number of copies sold. I think they sold some 4,000 in Italian and more or less same number in Spanish. I cannot be sure. I have ceded the rights to the editions to the Pontifical University of Salamanca.
He celebrated the golden jubilee last 28 of May in an intimate manner. Profile: Navarro, Canonist and Augustinian Recollect
Romualdo Rodrigo Lozano was born in Caseda (Navarra), Spain, on August 20, 1932. He joined the high school seminary that the Augustinian Recollects then had in Artieda (Navarra). He professed the vows in the convent of Valentuñana, Sos del Rey (Zaragoza) on September 3, 1951. It was Bishop Arturo Quintanilla, OAR, who ordained him and his brother Javier on the 28 of May 1958 in the same convent. He celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of this event.
After ordination he was sent to Rome and there obtained a licentiate in Canon Law from the Gregorian Pontifical University in 1961. After teaching Canon Law for two years (1961-1963) at the San Agustin theology in Pamplona, he went back to Rome to pursue a doctoral degree. He obtained the title from the Gregorian University in 1964. And in 1967 he took a diploma in Moral Theology from the Alfonsiano and a licentiate in Dogmatic Theology from the Laterano in 1968. Within this same year he obtained the title of Advocate of the Rota. In the year 1969 he was named “Judge Pro-synodal” and, as such, became a full-fledged Judge Instructor, exercising this office until 1978 when the Vicariate was reorganized. It was in 1983 when he was named, Advocate of the Causes of Saints.
He published various articles on Canon Law in the magazines Periodica and Ephemirides. In 1988 the Pontifical University of Salamanca published the well-known “Manual para instruir los Procesos de Canonización” which was translated into Italian in 1991.
Fr. Romualdo had diverse tasks in the Order. He was the General Procurator in the years 1972 – 1975. He served as General Postulator for thirty-two years (1973-2005). Actually he continues to work on the causes of the Augustinian Recollect nuns.
Golden Jubilee, Sacerdotal Ordination
He celebrated the golden jubilee last 28 of May in an intimate manner. Only his sister, Pilar, and his brother, Salvador, a diocesan priest who works in Venezuela, joined the Augustinian Recollects in the Mass at the Our Lady of Consolation chapel at the OAR curia in Rome. His brother, Javier, who was ordained with him, could not make it to the celebration due to illness. The celebration was advanced for one day in order to allow the Fr. General to attend.
Saints and blessed whose causes were promoted by Fr. Romualdo
Canonized Saints
Saint Ezequiel Moreno (OAR)
Saint Magdalena Nagasaki (OAR)
Santa Rosa Molas, foundress of the Religious of the Consolation
Saint Rafael Guizar y Valencia, archbishop of Jalapa
Blessed and Martyrs
Blessed Martin de san Nicolas and Melchor de san Agustin (OAR)
Martyrs of Motril (OAR)
Juan Nepomuceno Zegri y Moreno, founder of the Religious Congregation of the Mercedarian Sisters of Charity
Ma. Pilar Izquierdo, founder of the Missionaries of the Pillar
Manuel Gonzalez, founder of the Eucharistic Missionaries of Nazareth
Encarnacion Rosal, foundress of the Bethlemites, first blessed of Guatemala
Lauro Montoya, foundress of the Missionaries of Mary Immaculate, first blessed of Colombia
Piedad de la Cruz, foundress of the Salesians of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Caridad Brader, foundress of the Capuchins of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Carmen Salles, foundress of the Missionaries of Teaching
Carlos Rodriquez, lay man, first blessed of Puerto Rico
Zeferino Jimenez Malla, first gypsy blessed
Liberto and 12 companions, martyrs of Toledo
Maria Refugio Hinojosa and six companions – Clarisad de Madrid
Josep Tapies de Urgel and six companions, martyrs
Rita Pujalte and Compañera de Madrid of the Sisters of Charity of the Sacred Heart