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Foreword

Much has occurred since the 2015 publication of this biography of Blessed Stanley Rother, most notably his beatification on September 23, 2017. In 1981, I learned about the heroic death of Father Stanley Francis Rother. I was a seminarian at his alma mater, Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. From that time until this day, the witness of Blessed Stanley’s life and death has been a source of encouragement and inspiration to me as a seminarian, priest, and now as a bishop. I consider it a great gift of Divine Providence to be entrusted with overseeing the continuation of his cause for canonization begun by my predecessor, Archbishop Eusebius J. Beltran.

Stanley Rother was born and raised in Okarche, Oklahoma, and ordained a priest in 1963 for what was then the Diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa. He served parishes in Oklahoma for five years before his priestly ministry fully blossomed as a missionary, serving the parish of Santiago Atitlán and its mission in Cerro de Oro in the Diocese of Sololá-Chimaltenango in Guatemala. He arrived in 1968, served faithfully for thirteen years, and met his violent death on July 28, 1981.

The Church has affirmed that Father Rother died as a martyr, in odium fidei (“in hatred of the faith”). That declaration cleared the way for his beatification. It is my ardent hope that he will soon be canonized as a saint for the glory of God and for the benefit of the universal Church.

At this moment in the history of the Catholic Church, we need attractive and compelling models of priestly holiness. We need witnesses to pastoral charity. In the wake of the terrible abuse crisis that has caused such devastation in our Church and in society, the recognition of this generous parish priest’s simple manner of life and the sacrificial manner of his death serve as a tremendous affirmation to priests and faithful alike in the United States and around the world.

Here in Oklahoma, where Catholics are a small minority, the impact of Father Rother’s beatification has been a powerful spiritual impetus in our efforts in the New Evangelization. As I have seen since his beatification, his witness is inspiring priests, seminarians, and the faithful far beyond Oklahoma.

Similarly, in Guatemala, where the Church has suffered bitterly, the beatification of Father Rother has affirmed many suffering members of the clergy and faithful who esteem Blessed Stanley (Padre Apla’s) as their martyr and saint.

Saints are local. They come from ordinary families, parishes, and communities like Okarche. But their impact is universal. They belong to the whole Church. They remind us that holiness is our fundamental vocation. Saints represent the full flowering of the grace of our baptism.

I am grateful for this book, the first published biography of Blessed Stanley Rother. It is my hope that through this work many more people will be inspired by his beautiful life and valiant witness as an icon of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who did not run.

Most Reverend Paul S. Coakley

Archbishop of Oklahoma City

December 12, 2018

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe