By Rhina Guidos | Catholic News Service

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- Over the years, Carlos Colorado has become a modern prophet of sorts. His message is to extol the life of his hero: slain Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. But his soapbox isn't a street corner in California, where he lives.

For years, he has taken his message and shouted it from the digital soapbox of his "Super Martyrio" blog at www.polycarpi.blogspot.com.

That's where he has explored the life, death and even the afterlife of Archbishop Romero, who was fatally shot March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass. The Catholic Church has deemed that his violent death was carried out "in hatred of the faith," so he will be beatified May 23.

But his path toward sainthood has not been an easy one. And Colorado's blog, which started in 2006, has chronicled some of the bumps.

"I initially started the blog to have my own space to write about the Romero that interested me," Colorado said in an email interview with Catholic News Service.

He first started talking about Archbishop Romero in 2000 in a Yahoo discussion group, shortly after attending the 20th anniversary of Romero's death in his hometown of San Salvador.

But others in the group "considered my mainly theological interest in Romero too spiritualistic and conservative, and they ran me out of the group," Colorado said.

The blog became an outlet to talk about how he saw Archbishop Romero, "how his faith motivated what he did and the status of his beatification cause," Colorado said. He did not write for money or as a profession; he works as an attorney, and the blog is a bit of an intense hobby.

Sometimes, it seemed like a lonely venture.

"There were years when it seemed I was the only one keeping track, because there was nothing going on," he said. "Over time, I made the blog a bit of a one-man cheer squad for Romero's sainthood cause."

And then in March, news arrived of the beatification, which takes Archbishop Romero one step closer to sainthood. Colorado is taking a long weekend off from work to attend and document the beatification ceremony in San Salvador.

The blog has posts, including video, in English, Spanish, and Italian, even though Colorado admits he doesn't "really speak Italian." Its clear obsession with the archbishop has drawn notice from those interested in the sainthood process for the Latin American martyr.

Recently, Colorado interviewed the Bishop Donald Lippert of Mendi, Papua New Guinea, whom he dubbed "the bishop from the ends of the earth." The bishop is traveling 9,000 miles to attend the beatification.

"He is active on social media and he has been a friend of the blog," Colorado said.

These days, various groups and journalists -- from Opus Dei websites to American Catholic writer John Allen Jr. of Crux to spiritual bloggers in the U.S. -- refer to Colorado's blog. It also has picked up steam via Twitter.

"The thing that has surprised me the most was how receptive and decent people have been with me all along," Colorado said. "I knew that if Romero was going to be a saint, he was going to have to be revered by all Catholics."

The blog has struck a chord in a variety of circles, not just Catholic circles, but that has not surprised him.

"Archbishop Romero was himself the consummate coalition builder, going around seeking support from the Jesuits, the Carmelites, Opus Dei, the Neocatechumenal Way," he said.

Yet he has been, for decades, held up by some as the poster boy for the liberation theology movement.

Even though Colorado has felt a bit like a lone voice crying out, his labor of love has paid off in big ways for someone who does not work for a major news organization. He met Gaspar Romero, the brother of the archbishop, at the house where the Oscar Romero was born.

As the beatification takes place, however, and talk of canonization begins, "I think my mission may soon be completed," he said.

"I will have to decide what to do next," he told CNS. "My current thinking is that the blog is passe, for a variety of reasons, including that blogs may have had their heyday as a form and that I am thinking that I may need to preserve some of what I've developed in a more lasting way."

He said he might consider writing a book.

"The blog continues for now, but I will probably wrap it up at some logical point in the not-too-distant future. But I will always be a Romero devotee and, if history is any predictor, I will find some new Romero-related project(s) to work on."

CNS staffer Rhina Guidos is in El Salvador for Archbishop Romero's beatification. You can follow her on Twitter: @CNS_Rhina.