Romana

The Ecuadorean Post Office has issued two stamps with the picture of Archbishop Juan Larrea Holguin, the first Ecuadorean member of Opus Dei. A well-known jurist and the Archbishop of Guayaquil, he died on August 27, 2006. The stamps went on sale on December 8.

The official presentation of the stamps took place in the auditorium of the Los Cedros Student Residence in Quito. Carmen Elena Salazar, head of the Ecuadorean Postal Authority, said that the publication of the stamps with the picture of Bishop Larrea was in honor of a wise and holy man whose ordinary life was filled with deeds of service to his fellow men and women. Mauricio Troya, president of the Corporación de Estudios y Publicaciones, spoke in similar terms, stressing that the stamps were an act of justice post mortem.

Archbishop Antonio Arregui of Guayaqil gave a brief history of the ecclesiastical work of his predecessor in that See. He emphasized an event that Archbishop Larrea always saw as decisive in his life: his meeting as a student in Italy with Opus Dei and with its Founder, St. Josemaría Escrivá.