SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (CNS) – Pope Francis assured the bishops of El Salvador that the sainthood cause of slain Archbishop Oscar Romero was proceeding well, and the bishops asked him to come to El Salvador to preside personally over the archbishop’s hoped-for beatification.

Archbishop Jose Escobar Alas told reporters May 18 that he and three other Salvadoran bishops met the pope at the Vatican May 9 to discuss the cause of Archbishop Romero, who was shot and killed March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass in a hospital in San Salvador.

“We ask the Lord for the speedy beatification of Archbishop Romero and that the pope come here” to celebrate the ceremony, Archbishop Escobar said.