<<Submitting all facts to the opinion of the Holy Mother Church, everything suggests that Marta, the young student of journalism, has left us a beautiful example by living a life full of gratefulness to the love and mercy of God as well by the testimony of her courageous death. One of the last gestures that she made was kneel before the Blessed Sacrament and then leave full of the desire to nourish herself with the Eucharist of the following morning.>>
This paragraph is an extract from the biography of a young girl who was murdered 15 years ago, Marta Obregón Rodríguez (1969-1992). The priest Saturnino López Santidrián writes this biography.
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The priest and professor of Spiritual Theology and Church History, Saturnino López Santidrián, explains that the decision to propose the beatification of Marta Obregón was greatly influenced by a pastoral visit of Archbishop Francisco Gil Hellín to Zalduendo about three years ago. <<Days before the expected visit one of neighbouring woman asked permission to give the archbishop some pages that she had written. She told him that she had heard about the case of Marta and that it had made a great impression on her. She even recognized that it had changed her life and helped her to overcome problems within her marriage>>. It was then that Gil Hellín, informed about Marta and her biography, decided to put Saturnino López in charge of the cause of beatification of this young girl. (He is also taking care of the cause of beatification of the priest and martyr, Valentín Palencia). <<In Marta the principle: “As the life is, so the death is” is fulfilled. In the last two and a half years of her life there was a notable change in her attitude. She lived something like a second conversion and had a firm Christian outlook. In fact the last day of her life, she had been praying before the Blessed Sacrament in Club Arlanza and she had told a friend that she was leaving the books on the table because she planed to come back at 8 o'clock in the morning to hear Mass, receive Communion and continue studying. She had also offered to be an itinerant missionary in the Neocatechumenal communities,>> relates López Santidrián.
Decree July 2007: Last July, Francisco Gil Hellín himself revealed the news that the Archdiocese defended the beatification of Marta Obregón, by a decree published in the official diocesan newsletter. In the document he proclaims:we consider it appropriate to take the first steps in introducing the cause of Beatification of the young Marta Obregón Rodríguez, in our diocese. On the night of the 21st to the 22nd of January 1992, in conformity with her desire to serve God and according to reliable proofs, Marta gave up her life to Jesus Christ in defense of the virtue of purity.
López Santidrián specifies that these testimonies can be handed over to the judicial vicar or himself as diocesan postulator.
The next step consists in the naming of a tribunal by Gil Hellín which should include an Episcopal delegate (normally the juridical vicar), a promoter of justice and a notary-actuary. As well as this, the diocesan postulator is given a special appointment.
Later on a date will be fixed for the official public opening of the process and that day her family and friends, possible witnesses and the mass media will be invited. It is then when the appointments and the motive for opening the cause will be officially read out.