Two days and eight hours after Theresa Hohenberger and Marilyn Freund climbed into a sedan in Atlantic, Iowa, they were standing among thousands of faithful waiting to join the dedication Mass of the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City.
It’s hard to believe that the Synod Assembly is finally upon us. I am looking forward to this Pentecost weekend more than I ever remember in the past. With and through your prayers, I am confident that there will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on this local Church as approximately 500 delegates from around our archdiocese gather at Cretin-Derham Hall high school for our first Synod in more than 80 years.
Wearing a red and black traditional Guatemalan shirt that had belonged to martyred U.S. priest Father Stanley Rother, Ronald Arteaga traveled from his village of Santiago Atitlan to witness the Sept. 23 beatification of the pastor he knew as "Padre Aplas."
If the martyrdom of Blessed Stanley Francis Rother "fills us with sadness," it also "gives us the joy of admiring the kindness, generosity and courage of a great man of faith," Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, said Sept. 23 in Oklahoma City.