February 3, 2019

St. Mary High School dedicates chapel to Blessed Stanley Rother

REGIONAL
Story and photos by Stephen Kiltonic

WESTFIELD – After two postponements because of heavy snow and sub-zero weather, St. Mary High School dedicated its newly renovated chapel on Friday, Feb. 1, to Blessed Stanley Rother, the first U.S. born priest and martyr to be beatified. 

The dedication activities began with an 8:30 a.m. Mass at St. Mary Parish which the entire St. Mary school community attended. Students learned about the humble beginnings of Blessed Stanley Rother, who was born, raised and served his early days as a diocesan priest in Oklahoma, before becoming a missionary priest in Guatemala.

Stanley Rother grew up on a farm in Okarche, Okla., with four other siblings. In high school,  he was an athlete and involved in drama. He was elected president of the Future Farmers of America his senior year in high school. It was here that he felt called to the priesthood. Stanley struggled in his studies at the seminary but eventually was ordained to the priesthood in 1963. 

In 1968, Father Rother left the Diocese of Oklahoma City to work in the diocesan mission at Santiago Atitlan in Guatemala. Here, he worked 13 years with the native Mayan Tz’utujil people, learning Spanish and the difficult Tz’utujil language. Father Rother was loved by the poor people he served and devoted much of his spiritual time to pastoral care with baptisms, marriages, and first Communions. He also helped build a hospital and rectory.

In the early 1970s, political unrest and violence began tearing at the country. In this civil war, Father Rother was targeted and put on a death list.  First fearing for his life and the lives of others, he came back to the United States in January, 1981 only to return to Guatemala three months later saying, “The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger.” On July 28 1981, three masked men broke into his rectory and murdered him. He was one of 10 priests murdered in Guatemala that year.

Father Rother’s body was returned to Oklahoma where he was buried in the family plot in Okarche. At the request of his Guatemalan parishioners, his heart was interred at the parish church. A cause for canonization was opened in 2007 and in 2106 Pope Francis declared that he was killed in odium fidel, in hatred of the faith, making Father Rother the first martyr born in the U.S. Father Rother was beatified in 2017 in Oklahoma City.

Parish and school leadership wanted a place at St. Mary’s where students could pray and experience the Lord in the Eucharist. He challenged students to choose a patron for the small chapel in a room which was previously used for an office, storage, and a few years ago, was converted into a chapel.

“It needed updating. It needed just a new look and it needed an opportunity for students to be more aware that it exists,” said Rob Lepage, the school’s theology teacher.  

Lepage came up with the idea for a project where students researched saints or others to come up with an appropriate patron. From an initial list of 24 names, four finalists were chosen. Few students knew Blessed Stanley’s story, but once they did, he became the favorite.

“I liked it how he went to Guatemala, how he would not abandon his people and he was a farm boy, like myself. So, I just connected to him a little bit,” said Aaron Kielbasa, a junior.

“I think that the most important part is that we have someone just like us, who’s very common, who most people don’t know about,” said Anna Kozinski, a junior. “After learning about his story, it kind of inspired me to be more courageous and have that faith and have God back me up. You should never be afraid of something you believe in,” she added.  

“He wasn’t thinking that he was going to go off and do great things, that he was going to be famous, and yet he stayed open to God,” commented Lepage. “He was able to see that God was calling him to something more than what he imagined for himself. That’s a great lesson for students who are at a point in their lives where they’re looking forward to what they may be doing in the future.”

This intimate chapel is considered the heart of the school. The walls were painted inside and outside. All the electrical was rewired. A tabernacle was buffed up and placed on the existing altar and, below, a beautiful crucifix. An icon of Blessed Rother rests on the far wall alongside a first-class relic, a piece of bone from his body, which was sent from the Bishop of Oklahoma City.  An image of Our Lady of the Rosary, which is a great Marian devotion of the people of Guatemala, sits on the opposite wall. On the wall outside the chapel are four “museum-quality” panels with pictures depicting various stages from Blessed Rother’s life along with accompanying words, written by Lepage. 

A dedication plaque with Rother’s quote, “I give my life for my people. I am not scared,” is also on the wall.

Blessed Rother’s sister, Sister Marita Rother, lives in Kansas. St. Mary’s emailed her community informing her of the chapel, as well as a little bit of history of Westfield and St. Mary’s. She replied around Thanksgiving.

 She was very honored that students would pick her brother because he is brand new. “There’s not a lot dedicated to him at this point” Sister Rother wrote a letter to the students which rests in a frame outside the chapel.

 “It looks absolutely gorgeous. I think it’ll help bring people in and get closer to God,” said Kozinski.  

Blessed Stanley Rother’s next step is being canonized a saint, which requires a miracle through his intercession after the date of the beatification.

 A video version of this story will be on an upcoming edition of “Real to Reel” which airs Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. on WWLP-TV22 NEWS and in the Berkshires Sunday mornings at 5:30 on Albany’s Fox 23, WXXA.