OKLAHOMA CITY — The birth of Stanley Francis Rother was by all accounts ordinary, aside from the weather. The Catholic farm boy came into the world during an Oklahoma dust storm. But in life — and in death — he was extraordinary. The 46-year-old priest, shot to death in Guatemala
The 46-year-old priest who was shot to death in 1981, became the first person born in the United States to be declared a martyr by the Catholic Church.
A $50 million shrine in Oklahoma built to honor the slain missionary killed by three masked assassins who entered his rectory during Guatemala’s civil war is expected to draw thousands of pilgrims to his home state.
(OSV News) Michael Cook was away from the Catholic Church for a while, but around 2017, he was amazingly pulled back in. Not coincidentally, that was the same year that fellow native Oklahoman Father Stanley Rother the first U.S.-born martyr formally recognized by the church was beatified. I would definitely put some credit for him helping me come back to the church, 100%, said Cook, 37, who attends St. John Nepomuk Parish in Yukon, Oklahoma. I just was led. I think I had someone
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