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sandensea

(21,639 posts)
Sat Sep 23, 2017, 09:28 PM Sep 2017

Stanley Rother, Oklahoma-born priest killed during Guatemala's civil war, is set to be beatified

Few religious pilgrimages lead down a dusty, unpaved Oklahoma roads. But the unusual destination of this trek from Central America to a rural farmhouse seems an appropriate honor for the Rev. Stanley Rother, a martyred Roman Catholic priest celebrated for his unassuming nature and hard work.

Rother was beatified Saturday at Mass in Oklahoma City, moving him one step closer to possible sainthood. Thousands of people attended the ceremony at a downtown convention center to honor the church's first U.S.-born martyr and the first priest from the United States to be beatified. This is only the second beatification ceremony held in the United States.

The native of Okarche was a 46-year-old missionary in Guatemala when he was killed in 1981, one of several priests slain during the country's civil war between a right-wing dictatorship and liberal guerrillas. His name first appeared on a death list, and then he was shot to death in his mission.

"I feel like his brother — that we lived together, that we share the bond of brotherhood," Juan Pablo Ixbalan said in Tzutuhil, which is spoken by a subgroup of Mayans, through an interpreter. "He became one of us. He learned the language."

Ixbalan, 63, was a young teen when he first met Rother at his church in Santiago Atitlan, situated on a lakeshore between two volcanoes in the Guatemalan highlands where he grew up.

Rother started a radio station, worked alongside farmers and pushed for locals to make and sell knitted clothing. In helping translate the New Testament, Rother is credited with helping start the written form of Tzutuhil. He helped install an irrigation system and brought in crops such as wheat and soybeans, dissuading farmers from using chemicals. He brought in tractors to till the land, and repaired vehicles when they broke down.

Rother was born in 1935, a descendent of German immigrants who homesteaded on the outskirts of Okarche, Oklahoma. While much of the state remains largely protestant, Okarche — population 1,300 — has held to its Catholic heritage. It's still home to the Holy Trinity Church and school Rother attended.

At: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/thousands-attend-beatification-mass-for-american-priest/ar-AAsn4gT



Father Stanley Rother, 1935-1981.
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Stanley Rother, Oklahoma-born priest killed during Guatemala's civil war, is set to be beatified (Original Post) sandensea Sep 2017 OP
Why Francis' Church Probably Loves The Idea of Beatifying Fr. Stanley Rother Judi Lynn Sep 2017 #1
is there ANY place where the US govt hasn't backed death squads? niyad Sep 2017 #3
Doesn't look that way, does it? Meanwhile, US propaganda-fed right-wing idiots have no idea Judi Lynn Sep 2017 #4
sadly, every single word you have written is true. niyad Sep 2017 #5
k and r niyad Sep 2017 #2

Judi Lynn

(160,545 posts)
1. Why Francis' Church Probably Loves The Idea of Beatifying Fr. Stanley Rother
Sun Sep 24, 2017, 08:11 PM
Sep 2017

Sunday, June 25, 2017
Why Francis Church Probably Loves The Idea of Beatifying Fr. Stanley Rother

Here in Oklahoma where I live, there has been a lot of generated excitement over the beatification of a priest who was martyred in 1981 named Fr. Stanley Rother.



In the years approaching 1981 the government of Guatemala was killing a lot of its own citizens, making them dissappear. Fr. Rother's own community was getting killed off, and eventually even he was assassinated by them. Why?

Back in 1944, there was an uprising that overthrew a dictator. Then, from 1944 until 1954, the country had what they refer to as the Ten Years of Spring, a period of communism that was led by a communist labor party.

But then, in 1954, the United States government involved itself in Guatemalan politics, and under Operation PBSUCESS, our country covertly arranged a coup d'etat that deposed their democratically-elected communist president.

After that, the Guatemalan government had been hunting down communist sympathizers with brutal government repression, all backed by the CIA and the U.S. School of the Americas.

Basically, the U.S. government was training the new Guatemalan government in interrogation, torture, assassination, counterinsurgency, and civilian-targeted coercion. In other words, we backed death squads.



"Gloriosa Victoria" by Diego Rivera
In this picture, it's 1954, and the U.S. puppet Castillo de Armas shakes the hand of Foster Dulles.
Eisenhower's face is on the bomb in the center.



More:
http://thehirschfiles.blogspot.com/2017/06/why-francischurch-probably-loves-idea.html?m=1




Rest in peace, Fr. Stanley Rother.

Thank you, sandensea.

Thank goodness for men and women who know the truth, and refuse to support greedy, vicious murderers who work for the filthy elites.

There's no mistaking the strength and goodness in Fr. Rother's eyes. Only stupid people confuse goodness with cowardice.

Judi Lynn

(160,545 posts)
4. Doesn't look that way, does it? Meanwhile, US propaganda-fed right-wing idiots have no idea
Wed Sep 27, 2017, 06:13 PM
Sep 2017

anything like this has ever happened. When they do hear, on rare occasion, an American person of influence reveal these things have happened, these foaming-at-the-mouth selfish bigots go berserk and start screeching someone has "apologized" for America.

These same people clearly have refused to learn any American history, living on the silliness they were fed when they were young idiots, viewing themselves as little freckled, blue-eyed, pig-snouted angels the rest of the world envies. A nation of little adorable, self-obsessed, sweetie pies all the sneaky, violent other people in the world want to kill, so they can have their stupid toys and plastic houses, and shiney cars.

Poor, poor right-wing pigs.

Their day is coming, and I can't wait.

They don't have the discipline to read, and research, and, as we have seen played out, again and again, even if someone explains to them that their government, under the command of hate and power obsessed racists, HAS tortured, tormented, terrorized people in this country, throughout ALL countries south of our stolen southern border, they simply sullenly, nastily respond everyone who suffered had it coming for trying to resist US interests in their natural resources, their helpless labor pools, etc., etc., etc.

The psychopaths have been in charge a long, long time, and this WILL be changed, in time, as progress will happen, the human race MUST evolve or perish. The perverts who demand control or the earth are going to lose, no matter how much they machinate, create hysteria, hatred, and suffering. It's all going to wash back on them, no doubt about it.

They are all malignant, death worshippers, and pleasure seekers who crave their own pleasure at the suffering, the total expense of the real human beings, and the living planet itself.

There is no denying what and who these clowns are. They give themselves away with every word the gibber into their keyboards, or during their daily lives among people who matter.

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