tvc.dsj.org | October 10, 2017
IN THE CHURCH
Reverend King’s Words on Nonviolence
Need to be Lived Today, Speakers say
By Mark Pattison
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) – The Rever-
end Martin Luther King Jr.’s support
of nonviolence to bring about social
change applies as much to today’s so-
ciety as it did when Reverend King put
his philosophy to paper 60 years ago,
said speakers at an Oct. 2 news confer-
ence at the memorial dedicated to the
civil rights figure in Washington. That
the news conference was scheduled in
advance of, and held the day after, the
Las Vegas shooting spree that killed 59
people and injured more than 500 only
underscored the importance of Rever-
end King’s message, according to the
speakers. “It’s hard to find something
in times like these that doesn’t sound
like cliches,” said Bishop George V.
Murry of Youngstown, Ohio, chair-
man of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Com-
The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Wash-
ington on Oct. 2. Faith leaders gathered near
the monument to commemorate Reverend
King’s 1957 essay about “Nonviolence and
Racial Justice.” (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)
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mittee Against Racism. “As a society,
we need to stop making excuses and
commit to nonviolence.” He added,
“Pope Francis speaks of the earth as
our common home. So it is. And so it is
with our society ... It is so easy to speak
of human dignity,” he noted, “but do
we believe it selectively – applying it to
some people but not to others?”
Martyred Priest ‘Always Served Those Most in Need’
By Tony Gutierrez
Catholic News Service
OKLAHOMA CITY – 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.”
Even though Arteaga was only 10
when now-Blessed Rother was mar-
tyred in 1981, he remembers “he was
always with the people of Santiago
Atitlan, Guatemala, and more than
that, he identified with our indigenous
population.”
The sleeves on Arteaga’s shirt had
to be rolled up because, as he recalled,
Blessed Rother was a tall man.
“He learned to speak Tz’utujil, the
language of my people, and he always
served the people most in need,”
Arteaga said.
When Blessed Rother was killed,
Arteaga recalled, it “broke the hearts
of the entire village,” but “we had
hope that he would receive this honor
and thanks be to God that this day has
arrived!”
An estimated 20,000 packed the Cox
Convention Center from across the
country and throughout the world to
witness the beatification of the native
Oklahoman who would become the
first U.S.-born martyr. Ordained for
the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City in
1963, Blessed Rother went to the arch-
diocesan mission in Santiago Atitlan.
He was gunned down in his rectory
by three masked men in 1981.
Pope Francis recognized the priest’s
martyrdom last December, making
him the first martyr born in the United
States and clearing the way for his
beatification.
“We’re amazed at the size of the
crowd and delighted so many people
are interested in celebrating his life,”
said Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of
Oklahoma City during a media avail-
ability. “He’s a local hero whose reputa-
tion goes far beyond Oklahoma.”
Father Don Wolf, a cousin of Blessed
Rother, made an appeal for continued
support of the missions the martyr
served in Santiago Atitlan and Cerro
de Oro.
“For the people of his parish in San-
tiago Atitlan and Cerro de Oro and all
of us here in Oklahoma, he has led our
eyes unwaveringly to the kingdom of
God,” Father Wolf said.
It was for Father Wolf’s ordination
in May 1981 that Blessed Rother made
his last visit to the United States, which
Father Wolf said is a distinction that
links his priesthood to his cousin’s.
“At ordination they invoke the saints
... at my ordination we had one,” Father
Wolf said. “It’s an enormous inspiration
and an enormous challenge – the kind
of service his priesthood embodied is
the kind of service that I strive to.”
D i s co u nt s
During
Co n s t r u c t i o n
Ap p o i nt m e nt s
Ava i l a b l e
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