HONG KONG (SE): The De la Salle Brothers announced with great joy that one of their own, Brother James Miller, was beatified in at a ceremony Huehuetenango, Guatemala, celebrated by José Luis Cardinal Lacunza Maestrojuán, the bishop of David, Panama, on December 7.
Brother Miller entered the novitiate of the De La Salle Christian Brothers in 1962 and made his perpetual vows in 1969. He was then sent to Nicaragua where remained until the troubles of the Sandinista revolution in 1979 compelled his departure.
After a short period in the United States, he arrived in Guatemala in 1981, teaching and providing job and leadership skills to young indigenous Mayans in the midst of that country’s civil war.
Brother Miller’s commitment to teaching, mentoring and protecting them likely cost him his life.
CNS reported that he wrote a home in Christmas letter: “The level of personal violence is reaching appalling proportions (murders, tortures, kidnappings, threats, etc.) and the Catholic Church is being persecuted because of its option for the poor.”
He was shot and killed by three hooded and masked men shot on the afternoon of 13 February 1982 at the De La Salle Casa Indigena in Huehuetenango. The culprits were never found.
The De la Salle Brothers remarked on their website: ‘’They…respected him as a hard worker who led by example more than word. But above all he shared a common denominator with the poor rural Indians… Like them, he was a farmer who loved the land”
His beatification cause was opened in 2009 and concluded in 2010.
The De la Salle Brothers said: “Brother James’ beatification is evidence that great things are possible through the ordinary activities of our ministry of human and Christian education. Brother James’ martyrdom calls us to witness to the Reign of God and, like so many others past and present, share the light of Christ no matter the cost.”
