Archdiocese celebrates milestone for Rother shrine project
Eff ort s t o buil d a s hri ne honoring an Oklahoma priest on the path to Catholic sainthood marked a milestone on Thursday.
T h e A r c h d i o c e s e o f Oklahoma City's $40 mill i on project t o build the Blessed Stanley Rother S h r i n e a t S E 89 and Shields Boulevard began
i n N o v e m b e r 2 01 9 a n d Thur s d a y , c o n - struction crews poured the first concrete section for the building slab.
T h e s h r i n e p r o j e c t wi l l include a 2,000-seat Spanish c o l o n i a l - s t y l e c h u r c h , a c h a p e l wher e R o t h e r wi l l be entombed, an education building, an event space and several areas for shrines and devotion. The church will be the largest Catholic church in Oklahoma, expected to host numerous large archdiocese events and help accommodate the Hispanic population whose parishes are currently overcrowded.
The shrine is expected to be completed in 2022.
Rother was a priest with the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City when he volunteered to serve the diocesan mission i n Guatemala. The Central American country was in the midst of a civil war and Rother became a t arget due t o his efforts to help the indigenous people he met and served with compassion and love.
The Okarche nati ve was m u r d e r e d b y u n k n o w n assailants in his rectory at St. James the Apostle Catholic Church in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, on July 28, 1981. In September 2017, he was b e a t i f i e d d u r i n g a mucha n t i c i p a t e d B e a t i f i c a t i o n Mass at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City. At that time, Rother became the first martyr from the United States and the first U.S.-born priest to be beatified.
Archdiocese leaders said an additional aspect of the shrine complex will be a museum and pilgrim center, which will cost an additional $5 million. The center i s expected t o draw t housands of visi t ors each year.
A n e s t i ma t e d c r o wd o f 2 , 000 p e o p l e g a t h e r e d a t t h e s o u t h Okl a h o ma Ci t y site in 2019 for an elaborate gr oundbreaking c e r e mony that included prayers, dancing and singing. The site is on SE 89 between Shields Boulevard and Interstate 35.
For more information about the shrine project, including a live webcam of the construction site, go to rothershrine. org.