El Salvador president meets pope amid Romero hopes
El Salvador's ambassador to the Holy See Manuel Lopez poses next to a brochure of slain Archbishop Oscar Romero at the end of an interview with the Associated Press, in the embassy's office, in Rome, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. El Salvador's president Mauricio Funes meets with Pope Francis on Thursday amid mounting indications that the stars have finally aligned to move slain Archbishop Oscar Romero onto the first key stage on the path toward possible sainthood. El Salvador now has a government made up of former guerilla fighters who battled the same military hierarchy that Romero denounced and support his beatification. The Vatican now has a Latin American pope who channels many of Romero's concerns for the poor and marginalized. And a generation of Salvadorans who would have been vehemently opposed to a church honor for Romero has passed. President Funes' "principal objective" in his whirlwind, one-day trip to see Francis is to encourage "a push" for Romero's beatification and to thank Francis for the support he has already shown, El Salvador's ambassador to the Holy See, Manuel Lopez, told The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
