The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City announced yesterday that Father Stanley Rother, an Oklahoma-born priest who was martyred in Guatemala in 1981, will be beatified later this year.

CNA/EWTN News is reporting on the announcement of what will be the beatification of the first U.S.-born martyr on September 23, 2017 at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City. The announcement follows a December 2016 acknowledgment by Pope Francis that Father Rother indeed died a martyr for the faith while serving as a missionary in Guatemala.

Father Stanley Francis Rother was born in Okarche, OK, in 1935 where he grew up on a farm just northwest of Oklahoma City. According to Maria Scaperlanda, author of The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run, a biography of the martyr, Father Stanley grew up where the parish, school and farm were the pillars of community life. He went to the same school his whole life and lived with his family until he left for the seminary.

He had a difficult time studying for the priesthood, however. He failed several classes and left one seminary before graduating from Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Ordained in 1963, he served in several parishes in Durant, Tulsa and Oklahoma City before volunteering for mission service in Santiago Atitlan in Guatemala in June, 1968.

When he arrived at the mission, the Tz’utujil Mayan Indians in the village had no native equivalent for Stanley, so they called him Padre Francisco, after his baptismal name of Francis.

The work ethic he learned on his family’s farm served him well in his new assignment where he was just as likely to fix a broken truck and work in the fields as he was to celebrate Mass and administer the sacraments. Known for his kindness, selflessness and joy, he quickly became a beloved member of the village where he established a school, hospital, farmers’ co-op, and even a radio station which he used to catechize people in more distant villages.

But the violence of the Guatemalan civil war began to inch closer to his village where disappearances, kidnappings and killings soon became a part of daily life. Father Stanley refused to leave, even in 1980-1981 when the violence escalated in intensity and his own name began appearing on “hit lists.” He was constantly seeing friends and parishioners abducted or killed.

“The reality is that we are in danger. But we don’t know when or what form the government will use to further repress the Church…,” he wrote to Oklahoma Catholics during his last Christmas. “Given the situation, I am not ready to leave here just yet… But if it is my destiny that I should give my life here, then so be it…. I don’t want to desert these people, and that is what will be said, even after all these years. There is still a lot of good that can be done under the circumstances.”

He ended the letter with what would become his signature quote:

“The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger. Pray for us that we may be a sign of the love of Christ for our people, that our presence among them will fortify them to endure these sufferings in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom.”

He did return to Oklahoma for a brief period in January 1981 to see his parents but quickly returned to Guatemala to be with his people.

On July 28, 1981, three masked men burst into his rectory and shot him to death.

As the Archdiocese relates, his people were so overcome with grief they refused to let his body be returned to Oklahoma for burial. They relented only when it was agreed to leave his heart behind in Santiago Atitlan where it has been enshrined and venerated in the parish where he devoted his life and gave his blood.

In October 2007, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City under the direction of Archbishop Eusebius Beltran opened a Cause of Canonization for Father Rother.

“My heart and my soul rejoice at the announcement regarding the beatification of Father Stanley Rother, an Oklahoma martyr,” said Archbishop Beltran. “I thank Almighty God for the inspiration to initiate the cause for the canonization of Father Rother. I thank the many faithful people of our archdiocese and beyond who labored so diligently on the acts of this cause, and also for the many people whose prayers have helped to make this possible. Father Stanley Rother, pray for us.’”

In September 2014, Oklahoma City’s Archbishop Paul S. Coakley presented the Positio of Father Rother to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints in Rome. In 2015, the Theology Commission of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints voted to recognize Father Rother a martyr.

Once beatified, the next step of Father Rother’s cause will require a verified miracle before he can be canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church.

“We’re just thrilled, and grateful to God and to all those who have worked to promote the cause of Father Rother,” Archbishop Coakley said. “The Church needs heroic witnesses to advance the mission of Christ, and Father Rother was truly a heroic witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave his life in pastoral service to his people. I am looking forward to the celebration of his beatification.”

Father Stanley Rother, pray for us!

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