On the First American Martyr, Blessed Stanley Rother

Stanley Rother was a farmer priest coming from the Diocese of Oklahoma and Tulsa.  He struggled academically and was dropped from his first seminary but was given a second chance at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland.  He was ordained in 1963 and served in Oklahoma until 1968, when he answered a calling to be a missionary to Mayan Catholics in Southern Guatamala. 

Fr. Rother's faith and solidarity with his rural agrarian parish endeared him to the natives and increased their faithful participation in church life.  In late 1980, Fr. Rother witnessed a disappearance and torture of some of his parishioners.  When Fr. Rother learned that he was also on a hit list, he briefly returned to the United States to visit family and contemplate how to fully live his vocation.  Fr. Rother returned to Mount St. Mary's Seminary to discern what to do.  Despite being warned that his life was in danger, he sought to return to his mission to celebrate Easter with his people.

Fr. Rother was murdered, presumably by paramilitaries, in his rectory on July 28th 1981.  His people loved him so much that his Mayan parishioners wanted to keep the relic of Fr. Stanley's heart at their simple parish, while the rest of the remains were repatriated to Oklahoma.

Pope Benedict XVI declared Stanley Rother a Servant of God in 2009.  In 2016, Pope Benedict recognized Stanley Rother as having being killed "in odium fidei".   Blessed Stanley Rother's beatification mass was held before an overflow crowd of 20,000 in Oklahoma City on September 23, 2017.  

Blessed Stanley Rother's feast is on day of his martyrdom when he entered into eternal life on July 28th. 

Remembering English Martyrs

The Catholic Church commemorates May 4th the forty Martyrs of England and Wales. In the wake of the Protestant Reformation, England's Queen Elizabeth I intended supplant the old religion (Roman Catholicism) to the new religion loyal to the crown Anglicanism.  

From the Act of Supremacy in 1558 when Elizabeth ascended the throne to 1570 there were no Catholic martyrs for the faith.  But the English crown shifted their modus operandi  after Pope Pius V's bull Regnans in Excelsis  which excommunicated Elizabeth, the English crown began to crack down.  Five Catholics were slain for treason for plotting to overthrow the sovereign.

However, there were a slew of anti-Catholic laws which were promulgated.  In 1571, the English Crown denied the Holy See any jurisdiction, publishing anything from the Pope, forbidding "poperies" like crosses, rosaries and Agnus Dei from the the pope.  

Elizabeth also commanded that the Book of Common prayer be used in all churches.  Later, it became punishable to not attend Church of England services, draw anyone away from the state religion, teach without the blessing of an Anglican bishop or even celebrate the Catholic Mass.  In 1585, it became a capital crime to go abroad to be ordained as a Catholic priest.

One could rightly point to the 283 Protestants who were killed for their faith under Mary I were also martyred for their faith, during  an unfortunate era of intolerance in Christendom. May we now remember to have unity on essential thing,  liberty on dubious things and charity for all.

St. Edith Stein on Love

 

Remembering a Modern Martyr of Normandy

Two terrorists aligned with ISIS took hostages during a morning Mass in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in Normandy France.  The Muslim terrorists forced Fr. Jacques Hamel to kneel at the altar and then they slit the throat of the 84 year old curate as they reportedly videotaped the brutality.

Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi. S.J., lamented the martyrdom of Fr. Hamel, noting: “We are particularly stricken because this horrible violence occurred in a church — a sacred place in which the love of God is proclaimed — with the barbaric killing of a priest." 

Fr. Engelmar Unzeitig on Grace

Fr.Hubert  Engelmar Unzeitig was a young German Marianhill Mission priest who was arrested by the Nazis in  Austria in April, 1941 for defending Jews in his sermons.  Unzeitig was sent to Dachau concentration camp, which historians have sometimes labeled "the largest monastery in the world" because the Nazis held 2,700 captive priests, who were 95% from Poland.

Unzeitig remained in decent health for a few years despite the horrid conditions in the concentration camp.  But when a bout of typhoid fever spread throughout the concentration camp in early 1945.   Unzeitig joined 19 other priests to minister in the infirmary, which was an almost certain death sentence.   Unzeitig lived the Marianhill Mission Society's motto "If no one else will go: I will go."
He died in March 1945, which was a few weeks before Dachau was liberated from the Nazis.



Unzeitig was hailed as "The Angel of Dachau" for his holiness.  On January 21st, Pope Francis declared Engelmar Unzeitig a martyr and he will be beatified in the fall of 2016.

St. John Vianney on Martyrdom

Karekin II on the Canonization of the Armenian Genocide Martyrs

A hundred years ago, a genocide began which eliminated 1.5 million Armenian Christians through forced migration, torture and massacre.  The world was fixated on the Great War in Europe and the many lives lost to were practically ignored Armenia was far away as well as the vigorous denials by the Turks,

One man at the time who did not turn a blind eye to the atrocity was Mehmet Celal Bey, a Turkish official who is known in some circles as the Ottoman Oskar Schindler.

The Armenian Supreme Patriarch Kerekin II canonized the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide as martyrs.  Even today, the topic of the Armenian Genocide inspires tumult and vigorous denials from Turks.  Pope Francis stated: The first genocide of the 20th century was that of the Armenians."   The Turkish Foreign Ministry immediately shot back that Pope Francis' remarks were one-sided. When that demarche proved insufficient, Ankara summoned the Vatican ambassador for an explanation and later recalled Turkey's Ambassador to Rome.   The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu noted: "Religious authorities are not the places to incite resentment and hatred with baseless allegations."  Turkey's position is that the 1.5 million victim figure is disputable and that any deaths were due to World War I.

Even after 100 years, denial is not just a river in Egypt.

The Centennary of the Armenian Genocide is instructive as the world currently is seeing a massacre of Christians by Muslim extremists, like ISIS, Boko Haraam and Al Shabaab, and much of the so called civilized world is non-plussed by the atrocity and believes that it does not affect them. Or our feckless leaders acknowledge the horrific event but never name the perpetrators (radical Islamism) or do not acknowledge the identity of the victims (Christians or Jews).

 

Pope Francis' Cri-de-Coeur on Syrian Slaying

Dutch Jesuit Fr. Francis van der Lugt was brutally murdered in Homs, Syria by masked gunman. The septigenarian cleric was beaten by a masked man on the street in front of the Jesuit monastery in Bustan al-Diwan, a Christian portion of the Old City,  and then he was shot twice in the head.

Fr. van der Lugt who was a trained psychotherapist, had spent fifty years living in Syria ministering to disabled people at the Al Ard Center near Homs.  The Center also took in refugees from the Syrian Civil War, but that mission curtailed as the staff fled since they could not ensure the safety of their guests.  Fr. van der Lugt tried to be a companion to those in mental distress and give them as much food as possible.

Fr. Frans refused to be part of the February 2014 UN supervised evacuation of 1,400 people from the city, which had been besieged for a year and a half.  In the Old City of Homs, the Christian population had shrunk from tens of thousands to just 66.  Christians used to make up 10% of the Syrian population before the Civil War, but Christians have been brutalized for their faith during the conflict Fr. van der Lugt reasoned that he was the only priest remaining to minister to his people so how could he leave.

In January, Fr. van der Lugt made pleas through the media that gained world-wide attention to have humanitarian aid sent to the city to feed the starving Muslim and Christian population.




This led to meeting with UN officials to receive aid and hear first hand accounts of the humanitarian trials in Homs. Fr. van der Lugt procured four kilos of kilos of flour a week from a Muslim charity so that he could make bread and distribute half a loaf to the enclaves neediest 30 people.

Besides, Fr. van der Lugt considered Syria to be his home. The Jesuit proclaimed:  "The Syrian people have given me so much, so much kindness, inspiration and everything they have. If the Syrian people are suffering now, I want to share their pain and their difficulties."  Per the priests instructions, his earthly remains will be buried in Syria.

Syrian opposition forces were quick to blame the Bashar al-Assad government for the slaying, claiming that government would be the only ones to benefit from the killing.  Yet Fr. van der Lugt believed that even after eighteen months of being under siege that the opposition was not popular among Syrians.  The amnesty which was offered in January only applied to Syrians.  Thus the foreign fighters who remained in the Old City may have looked askance at one who was not a co-religionist.

Regardless of who was responsible, Fr. Francis van der Lugt was a martyr for the faith. Aside from Pope Francis' cri-de-coeur at his fellow Jesuit's brutal slaying, the Vatican voiced outrage over the killing of Fr. van der Lugt.  Federico Lombardi, spokesman for the Holy See declared: "This is the death of a man of peace, who showed great courage in remaining loyal to the Syrian people despite an extremely risky and difficult situation."  Lombardi added that the Dutch priest had offered "the testimony of Jesus to the end." 

Fr. van der Lugt's selfless dedication to his fellow man and openness to serve the Lord even unto death echos the ultimate sacrifice that our Lord Jesus Christ which we will celebrate next week in the Triduum.