Oklahoma set for beatification of ‘ordinary’ native son

Father Stanley Rother martyred while serving the faithful in Guatemala in 1981

Published: September 9, 2017

By Rhina Guidos
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — Catholics in Oklahoma have been preparing for a long time for this moment. Many, like Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, had faith it would come, but there’s still a sense of awe, to think that a farm boy, one of their own, is about to take a step toward official sainthood.

On Sept. 23, Oklahomans will get a front row seat to the beatification of Father Stanley Rother, an ordinary man from an ordinary town, who died extraordinarily as a martyr in Guatemala while serving in a mission. He knew well the dangers of the Guatemalan highlands, where government forces tortured and killed anyone suspected of dissent during the most politically tumultuous moments in the country’s history.

However, Father Rother refused to abandon the community he so loved from 1968 until his 1981 assassination. Like many of the poor and persecuted he served, he died long before he had to at age 46, shot in the head in the parish rectory.

“People are justly proud of this native son, but one wouldn’t expect something like this, such a recognition to be accorded to somebody from Okarche, Oklahoma,” said Archbishop Coakley in a phone interview with Catholic News Service.

Okarche (pronounced oh-car-chee) is a small farming town with a lot of windmills, said Archbishop Coakley, and one that’s increasingly receiving visitors and pilgrims wanting to learn more about the tranquil setting that was home to Father Rother. He left it behind because he wanted to serve the Church in a place where priests were needed and, in the late 1960s, priests were needed in the remote highlands of Guatemala, where the Oklahoma City Archdiocese had a mission in the town of Santiago Atitlan.

Though his heart, physically and otherwise, was left in Guatemala, the rest of his remains returned to Okarche. For years, people stopped by to pray at his grave at the Holy Trinity Cemetery in town, said Archbishop Coakley, even before he was declared a martyr by the Vatican in late 2016. His remains have since been exhumed as part of the beatification process and moved to a chapel in Oklahoma City, where the ceremony declaring him Blessed Stanley Rother will take place.

Though Oklahoma is not a predominantly Catholic state, there’s a lot of interest outside of Catholic circles, particularly with the upcoming beatification. Archbishop Coakley said he has tried to meet with local groups eager for information about the event and recently gave a presentation to religious leaders of various faith traditions who wanted to know more about the priest and the significance of his beatification.

“Some of them undoubtedly plan to attend the beatification,” he said. “It’s touching people well beyond our Catholic community.”

Two of Father Rother’s siblings as well as a delegation from Guatemala will attend the ceremony at the Cox Convention Center. Guatemalans from Santiago Atitlan will participate in the liturgy, which will include the prayers of the faithful in their local dialect. A large banner that will be unveiled at the time of the beatification will display elements of Guatemalan culture, said Archbishop Coakley.

He said he wants Catholics to understand that a martyr and a holy person such as Father Rother can come from an ordinary beginning.

“There was nothing exceptional about him,” said the archbishop about Father Rother. “But he was extraordinarily faithful to his calling, to his vocation, to grace. He’s a witness to all of us that God chooses the humble, the lowly, as he always does, to accomplish great things for those who allow themselves to be used by God.”

In addition to the beatification, the archdiocese also is in the midst of its first capital campaign, which includes raising $55 million — half will go toward a shrine honoring Father Rother.