Stanley Rother, born a easy Oklahoma farm boy, grew to become a Catholic priest and volunteered to serve the poor as a missionary in Guatemala in 1968. Thirteen years later, a group of armed males shot him to loss of life in his rectory.
Four many years on, with 1000’s in attendance and amid a resounding, angelic choir, the archbishop of Oklahoma City dedicated and opened a multimillion-dollar, 2,000-seat shrine constructed in Father Rother’s honor.
Father Rother, who was reinterred in a chapel on the shrine over the weekend, is on the trail to sainthood (he was beatified in 2017).
“Yes, we honor Stanley Rother here. But none of this, ultimately, is about Blessed Stanley,” Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City mentioned in his homily to the trustworthy on the Feb. 17 Mass, parts of which had been celebrated in Spanish, on the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine.
“It’s not about the beautiful art and architecture that speaks so eloquently of God’s goodness and mercy, and beauty. We gather here to honor the God who created all of this and the God who is glorified in his saints. We honor Blessed Stanley because we are giving glory to God. The life of each and every saint in the history of the Church manifests something of the perfection of Christ, reveals God’s beauty, his truth and his goodness.”
Father Rother, a native of rural Oklahoma, is the primary particular person born in the United States to be formally declared a martyr by the Catholic Church and the primary priest born in the United States to be beatified, or declared “Blessed.”
In attendance on the Feb. 17 Mass had been quite a few members of the Rother household, together with Father Rother’s sister, Sister Marita Rother of the Congregation of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in Wichita, Kansas. Also current had been dozens of bishops, together with Archbishop Christoph Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States and consultant of Pope Francis; Archbishop Emeritus Eusebius Beltran of Oklahoma City; and Jesuit Archbishop Gonzalo de Villa y Vásquez of Santiago de Guatemala, who served as Father Rother’s archbishop in Guatemala.
Archbishop Coakley thanked the packed congregation in attendance and famous the absence of Mark Ruffin, an Oklahoma City businessman and Catholic who found the property — a giant plot of land — the place the shrine was later constructed. Ruffin died through the COVID-19 pandemic, Archbishop Coakley mentioned, his voice breaking.
Archbishop Coakley described Father Rother as a “very ordinary man … not born with a halo,” who however was a “good shepherd” who confirmed exceptional constancy to the pastoral care of his individuals.
“We need such priests, such good shepherds, to make manifest the presence of Jesus in our midst,” Archbishop Coakley mentioned.
Archbishop Coakley famous that the dedication of the new shrine — which entails, amongst different issues, the anointing of the partitions with oil and the sprinkling of holy water — serves as a reminder to Christians of the dignity they’ve as baptized individuals.
“God desires that each and every one of us become a saint,” he mentioned.
The archbishop inspired everybody current to attempt to extend devotion to Father Rother, “a very attractive and relatable figure,” particularly for younger males in Oklahoma contemplating the priesthood.
“At a time when the priesthood of Jesus Christ is so little understood, or so little valued — due in no small part, admittedly, to the sins of some of our brothers — we need heroic, faithful, generous witnesses to remind us of the dignity of our vocation,” Archbishop Coakley mentioned.
‘Padre Apla’s’
Rother was born in 1935 in Okarche, Oklahoma, about 40 miles northwest of Oklahoma City. He attended Holy Trinity Catholic Church and School earlier than becoming a member of the seminary, the place he struggled academically. He persevered in his research, regardless of the challenges, and ultimately graduated from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Maryland. He was ordained a priest of the then-Diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa in 1963.
While Rother was in seminary, St. John XXIII requested the Churches of North America to ship help to and set up missions in Central America. Soon after, the Oklahoma Diocese established a mission in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, a poor rural neighborhood of principally Indigenous individuals, a group known as the Tz’utujil, descendants of the Mayans.
Father Rother accepted an invite to hitch the mission crew 5 years after his ordination and would spend the following 13 years of his life in Guatemala, serving the individuals of the parish through the nation’s civil warfare (1960–1996). While there, regardless of his educational struggles in seminary, he managed to study each Spanish and Tz’utujil and even translated the whole New Testament into the Tz’utujil language. The locals known as him “Padre Apla’s,” which suggests “Father Francis” (Rother’s center identify) in Tz’utujil.
Throughout the nation’s civil warfare, fought between authorities militants and insurgent guerillas, many Catholics had been killed amid the Church’s insistence on persevering with to coach and help the poor. Father Rother briefly returned to his house state of Oklahoma after his identify appeared on a right-wing loss of life checklist however quickly returned, understanding full properly the risks of doing so.
A well-known quote is attributed to him: “The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger.”
Just a few months later, in the early morning hours of July 28, 1981, three ski-masked males broke into the rectory of the mission the place Father Rother was residing. The males tried to kidnap Father Rother at gunpoint, however he refused and resisted, struggling however refusing to name for assist, in order to not endanger the others in the parish mission. Within quarter-hour, the lads had shot the priest twice and fled. No one has ever been prosecuted for Father Rother’s homicide. He was 46 years outdated.
The Oklahoma City Archdiocese opened Father Rother’s trigger for canonization in 2007, and 9 years later, Pope Francis acknowledged Father Rother as a martyr. More than 20,000 people attended Father Rother’s beatification Mass in Oklahoma City on Sept. 23, 2017, whereby he acquired his current title of “Blessed.”
In 2019, Gov. Kevin Stitt proclaimed July 28 as “Blessed Stanley Rother Day” in Oklahoma.
‘Where He Is Now’
Located simply off I-35 in south Oklahoma City, the structure of the brand new shrine — which sits on a former golf course — is designed in a related model to the church at Santiago Atitlan, the place Father Rother served in Guatemala. Construction on the shrine started in November 2019. Its first rector, Father Don Wolf, is a cousin of Father Rother’s.
Father William Novak, vicar normal for the archdiocese, informed EWTN News that the shrine embodies “traditional Catholic architecture” in its Baroque inside, with the outside evoking the spirit of the “Spanish colonial period.”
The inside accommodates quite a few murals, together with a giant mural in the chapel depicting Father Rother being welcomed into heaven by the Risen Christ and surrounded by angelic infants — a depiction of the Holy Innocents.
“We wanted an image of where he is now … this heavenly image of him being received by the Risen Christ,” Father Novak mentioned.
Last Sunday, Feb. 12, Father Rother’s physique was moved from Resurrection Memorial Cemetery in Oklahoma City to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help for vespers and an all-night vigil, after which his earthly stays had been transported to the chapel on the new shrine. There, his physique was positioned instantly contained in the altar of the shrine chapel, the place it’s going to relaxation completely.
Though Father Rother’s physique is interred in Oklahoma City, the Blessed’s coronary heart stays enshrined on the church in Santiago Atitlan.
‘Bienvenidos a Todos’
In addition to the primary sanctuary and the chapel, the shrine complicated additionally consists of spiritual schooling and ministry school rooms and a museum and pilgrim heart with artifacts and tales about Father Rother’s life. The complicated additionally options a recreation of Tepeyac Hill, the well-known spot close to Mexico City the place Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to St. Juan Diego in 1531. On the hill are painted bronze statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan that had been devoted in December 2022.
The shrine will operate as a parish for many who reside in south Oklahoma City, which has a rising Hispanic inhabitants, Father Novak, the vicar normal, informed EWTN News. Up till the development of the shrine, the most important church in the world sat about 450 individuals, and parishioners from one other close by parish had been worshipping in a gymnasium for greater than 15 years, with 9 Masses each weekend. The magnificent new shrine, in distinction, seats 2,000 trustworthy, Father Novak mentioned.
At the dedication Mass, Archbishop Coakley acknowledged the native parishioners — most of whom are Hispanic — who will, as of this weekend, make the shrine their new parish house.
“Bienvenidos a todos,” he mentioned. “Welcome to all.”
Leif Arvidson, the shrine’s government director, mentioned the plan is to make the sacrament of reconciliation, in addition to Mass, out there day by day of the week. Arvidson previously oversaw the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
The Rother Shrine’s huge price ticket of greater than $50 million is being coated totally by donations, the archdiocese mentioned. In 2018, the archdiocese introduced that its capital marketing campaign, one of many objectives of which was the development of the shrine, had surpassed its unique $65-million aim.
Arvidson mentioned he believes the religious good of the venture would have been value it for the individuals of Oklahoma City and, certainly, the world, whatever the price.
Arvidson mentioned, “If just one soul comes closer to Christ, if one soul is brought to Christ, I think it’s all worth it.”
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