Archdiocese names director for Rother shrine
The Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley has selected Leif Arvidson as the executive director for the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City.
Coakley, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, said Arvidson was selected after a national search.
"Leif is a wonderful leader in the local church, for his family and in his community," Coakley said in a news release. "He understands the importance of Blessed Stanley in Oklahoma and will be dedicated to telling the story of our parish priest who gave his life for his Catholic faith and for the love of his people."
Arvidson said he is excited to join the effort to recognize the faith and witness of Rother, "this holy Oklahoma priest.”
"I am honored to be chosen to help carry out the vision for the shrine and to assist with the creation and development of this beautiful destination of prayer, faith, education and ministry for the Oklahoma City community and for faithful from around the world,” he said in a news release.
Arvidson most recently served as executive director of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin, from June 2010 to the present. He oversaw a $2 million budget, 45 full-time and part-time employees, more than 50 volunteers, more than 30,000 benefactors and 75,000 pilgrims who visited the shrine each year.
He graduated summa cum laude from Franciscan
University in Steubenville, Ohio, in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in history and a minor in theology. In 2002, he earned a juris doctorate from Notre Dame Law School.
The archdiocese broke ground on the $40 million Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in November at SE 89 and Shields Boulevard in south Oklahoma City. Archdiocese leaders said the shrine, expected to be completed in 2022, is the signature element of the first-ever capital campaign for the archdiocese.
The site will include a 2,000-seat church, a chapel where Blessed Stanley Rother will be entombed, an education building, an event space and several areas designated for shrines and devotion. The site will be developed over time.
Rother was an Archdiocese of Oklahoma City priest from Okarche who volunteered to serve the diocesan mission in Guatemala. The Catholic Church in Guatemala was caught in the middle of a civil war at the time and Rother was targeted for helping to educate the local indigenous people and for creating a co-op to help them get better prices for their crops.
He was killed in his rectory on July 28, 1981, in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. He was beatified during a Beatification Mass in Oklahoma City, becoming the first martyr from the United States and the first U.S.-born priest to be beatified.
Each year, on July 28, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, the Diocese of Tulsa and the Diocese of Little Rock, Ark., celebrate his feast day.
For more information on Blessed Stanley, go to stanleyrother.org.