You can’t miss the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine as you drive previous Exit 120 on Interstate 35. This stunning Spanish colonial church is devoted to an Oklahoma priest who’s on the trail to sainthood within the Roman Catholic Church.
The oldest of 5 youngsters in a German farming household from Okarche, Stanley Francis Rother served for 13 years as a missionary in Guatemala, the place he was killed in 1981 by unknown assailants on the age of 46. In 2016, Pope Francis declared him a martyr for the religion — the primary acknowledged Catholic martyr from the United States. A 12 months later he was beatified in a transferring ceremony in Oklahoma City.
But what difference will this shrine make to our metropolis and our state? For my reply, I may level out that it’ll seat 2,000 folks, making it the most important Catholic church within the state of Oklahoma. Or I may strive to impress by noting that the marketing campaign to elevate cash for the shrine and different initiatives doubled its established purpose.
Or I may spotlight that leaders in Oklahoma’s tourism business see the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine as one main increase for an business that generated $3.8 billion in 2021. Without a doubt, the shrine might be a preferred vacation spot, with hundreds from all around the nation and the world visiting its museum and customer’s heart to find out about Stanley Rother, his life and his ministry. And it is going to be a spot the place pilgrims come to pray on the facet chapel the place Rother’s physique will completely relaxation.
Yet I’d argue that no information, predictions or numbers inform a very powerful goal. In reality, specializing in information and numbers buries the lede of this story!
The actual query to think about is way more introspective. To localize phrases requested within the Gospels by incredulous folks about Jesus of Nazareth: Can something good come from Okarche, Oklahoma?
Having a shrine named after a farmer from Okarche reminds all of us dwelling odd lives that every of us is named to reside absolutely and genuinely the life God gave us, and that’s sufficient to rework and bless our communities. And Father Rother, the shepherd who selected to face dying quite than abandon his flock — the shepherd who didn’t run — continues to mannequin for us how to make a difference in our world.
The Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine proclaims to the world that it was an Oklahoman who was declared the primary martyr from the United States — and the primary American priest to be beatified. And, God keen, it is going to be this odd man from Okarche, Oklahoma — the center of America — who might be proclaimed by the common church as the primary American man to be declared a saint.
Stanley Francis Rother was a devoted man who dared to love Jesus with every little thing he had — and that modified every little thing. To paraphrase what G. Ok. Chesterton wrote of St. Thomas More: If there had not been that specific man at that specific second, our Church, our group, and our historical past would have been completely different.
Father Stanley died a martyr’s dying. More considerably, his life and his priestly service testify to the difference that one particular person can, and does, make.
We want the witness of holy women and men, like Stanley Rother, who remind us that we’re all referred to as to holiness — and that holy women and men come from odd locations, even from Okarche, Oklahoma.
María Ruiz Scaperlanda has revealed or contributed to quite a few books, together with, “The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run: Blessed Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma.”
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