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.
