TWELVE years since the process for his canonization began, the late Cebuano archbishop Teofilo Camomot was finally declared as “Venerable” by the Vatican on Saturday, May 21, 2022.
The Archdiocese of Cebu announced that Pope Francis has issued a decree recognizing Camomot’s heroic virtues during a meeting with officials of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints led by their prefect, Archbishop Marcello Cardinal Semeraro, on the same day.
With Camomot declared as Venerable, two miracles that can be attributed to him are now needed to complete the process of his sainthood — the first would qualify him for beatification and the second to declare him as a full-fledged saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
Msgr. Joseph Tan, spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Cebu, told SunStar Cebu that they were very happy with the Pope’s announcement.
Tan added that they are awaiting word from Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma concerning their plans following the Pope’s announcement.
Camomot was born in Barangay Cogon in the then municipality of Carcar, southern Cebu, on March 3, 1914. He was ordained as priest on Dec. 14, 1941, or just a few days after the outbreak of the Second World War.
Aside from his simplicity, personal holiness and apostolic works, Camomot was also known for his spiritual gifts of healing, bilocation and levitation.
The late Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal once attested that he personally witnessed Camomot’s ability to bilocate or to be in two places at once.
He was assigned in various parishes in Cebu and other areas in the country. Camomot served as Coadjutor Archbishop Emeritus of Cagayan de Oro.
Camomot was also the founder of the Daughters of Saint Theresa based in Barangay Valladolid, Carcar City just before he died in a vehicular accident in Magtalisay, San Fernando on Sept. 27, 1988.
Just before his retirement as Archbishop of Cebu, Vidal announced that the Holy See approved the opening of the cause for Camomot’s beatification and canonization.
Vidal also created a commission composed of senior Church officials in Cebu that will investigate the possibility of Camomot’s beatification.
Following Vidal’s retirement, Palma assumed the work of promoting Camomot’s cause for sainthood.
In 2015, the Congregation of the Causes of Saints granted the Decree of Validity of the Diocesan Process.
A “positio” or dissertation on Camomot’s life, virtues and fame of sanctity was submitted to the congregation in 2020.
On Oct. 21, 2021, the Special Congress composed of nine theological consultants gave their unanimous approval on the heroic virtues of Camomot.
The Cardinals and Bishops in the Ordinary Session of May 3, 2022, chaired by Cardinal Semeraro affirmed that the Servant of God exercised theological, cardinal and concomitant virtues to a heroic degree.