The Vatican has reportedly approved a request to open the Cause of Brazilian advocate of the poor Dom Hélder Câmara. According to the Italian daily newspaper Avvenire, the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints gave the nihil obstat to the Cause in a letter dated February 25, signalling that it had no objection to the launch of the beatification process. Dom Hélder Câmara served as Archbishop of Olinda and Recife from 1964 to 1985 under Brazil's military government. He died aged 90 on August 27 1999. He was an advocate of Liberation Theology and famously said: "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist." The Congregation for the Causes of Saints was responding to a letter requesting the opening of the Cause from Archbishop Fernando Saburido of Olinda and Recife.