THOUSANDS are expected to attend the beatification ceremony of a Catholic priest shot dead in El Salvador by US-funded death squads, the church said yesterday.

The chancellor of the Archdiocese of San Salvador Rafael Urrutia said that they had prepared 6,000 chairs for the event which will bestow sainthood on Rutilio Grande who was assassinated in 1977.

Pope Francis has personally delegated Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez to perform the beatification ceremony of “the Salvadoran martyrs” on his behalf.