Jul 28 - “Bl. Stanley Rother” © icon by Lewis Williams, OFS. Happy Feast Day Bl. Stanley!
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Padre A’plas (Father Francis), the name given him by the Tzutuhil Mayan Indians, was an unassuming farm boy from Oklahoma who found learning Latin difficult. Forced to repeat a year in seminary, he was later asked to leave. A new seminary and tutoring in Latin led to his ordination in 1963. In 1968, he joined Micatokla (Catholic Mission of Oklahoma) in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, and found his life’s work, even mastering the Tzutuhil language. War eventually came to these gentle, poor people and their beautiful mountains and lakes. A right-wing military dictatorship fought leftist Guerillas over redistribution of land and wealth. Death squads kidnapped, tortured and killed those the government felt were a threat. People were ‘disappeared’: many in his parish.
Witnessing the kidnap of one of his catechists, Diego Quic, and finding himself high on the death list, he returned home. Guest speaking at an Oklahoma parish, he voiced sentiments challenging our governmental policies related to the escalating violence in Guatemala. Two parishioners questioned his patriotism. One wrote the Guatemalan embassy regarding him. His fate was being sealed. In Guatemala, priests were being killed. Stating that a shepherd can’t abandon his flock, he returned. On the night of July 28, 1981, a few days after the town’s biggest festival celebrated with First Communions and Marriages, he was asleep in a first floor room. Three tall men broke in, and with threats found their way to his room. Fr. Stan fought them, adamant they would not take him to be tortured and killed elsewhere. “Kill me here!” he yelled. Firing two shots into his head, he died with and for the people he was blessed to serve for 13 years. His heart and blood remain with his people; his body rests at home, close to his family. This beloved martyr’s cause is being lifted for canonization.
His feast day is July 28.
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