On September 27, 2014,I was one of the 200,000 persons from all around the world traveled to Madrid, Spain to attend a special Mass to celebrate the Vatican recognition of Alvaro del Portillo y Diez de Sollano, Bishop and Prelate of Opus Dei, as Blessed. I was with a group from Texas – Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and the Texas Valley.
Bishop Alvaro, first Prelate of Opus Dei, died in Rome on March 23, 1994. Eleven years ago, on August 2, 2003, a child with brain damage and other pathologies was miraculously cured in Santiago, Chile despite suffering a cardiac arrest for over half an hour and a massive hemorrhage. The baby survived and after continuing improving in health, Jose Ignacio Ureta Wilson, 11, today is able to lead a normal life like any other child. This cure has been attributed to the intercession of Blessed Alvaro. The Vatican opened a case by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to look into the incident and several entities within the Church also reviewed all aspects of Bishop Alvaro’s life and virtues. Hundreds of witnesses – lay and ordained – were interviewed around the world.
In October 2012 the Medical Consultants of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared that the cure of little Jose has no scientific explanation. Then, in July 2013 Pope Francis ordered publication of the Decree declaring there had been a miraculous cure and that the miracle was obtained through the intercession of Don Alvaro. The date of the Beatification Mass was set for September 27, 2014, in Madrid. More info can be obtained in the Opus Dei Media Kit
The following video is just one of many prepared by those who attended. A lot of those videos are on YouTube and on the Opus Dei website. But this one features our Texas group, primarily. I augmented it with footage posted by EWTN on YouTube. My goal is to provide a 20 minute snapshot of what happened that Saturday in Madrid, which will be understandable to those who did not attend, or who have been wondering what all this is about, as well as a “scrapbook” of memories for those of us from Texas who did attend.