Blessed Stanley Rother’s biographer on his gift of presence

Catholic writer María Ruiz Scaperlanda is an enthusiastic voice for Blessed Stanley Rother — one you can hear in a new documentary about Rother’s life, American Martyr, which features her prominently.

Scaperlanda served on the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City’s historical commission for Fr. Stanley’s cause, helping to gather information for the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints of the Roman Curia. She is also the author of the biography The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run: Fr. Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma. She and her husband Michael Scaperlanda, chancellor for the archdiocese, have executive producer credits for the documentary, which is presented by the archdiocese.

I spoke with her recently by phone. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I understand that you were born in Cuba, grew up in Puerto Rico, and now live in Oklahoma, is that correct?

María Ruiz Scaperlanda: All of that is correct, yes.

It might seem superfluous to ask a Latina Catholic living in Oklahoma what drew her to an Oklahoma priest martyred in Latin America — but I’d still like your answer.

Scaperlanda: My kids went to Catholic school here. I credit Oklahoma Catholic school teachers with keeping the story of this man alive. My kids would come home and tell me cool stories about a diocesan priest from Oklahoma who was killed in Guatemala, and my journalistic senses were very interested in all those details!

The stories from your children — was that the first you heard about Fr. Stan?

Scaperlanda: Yes. When the archdiocese opened the cause for Fr. Stan, they needed people who speak Spanish, which is my first language. The archbishop [Eusebius Beltran] asked me if I would be involved in the historical commission. Later, on a pilgrimage to Guatemala, I met the new archbishop [Paul Coakley], and he said to me, “You know, we need a good biography that people can pick up and get to know him.” So, I dove into Fr. Stan because of assignments. Doing his biography was quite a privilege.

Fr. Stanley’s shrine in Oklahoma City is understandably popular, but as a martyr and even as a shepherd, Blessed Stanley Rother belongs in a special way to the indigenous people of Guatemala. I wonder whether this cultural dual citizenship, so to speak, shapes how American Catholics perceive his legacy, or his message to us?

Scaperlanda: That’s interesting, yeah. The Guatemalan Diocese of Sololá included him in a list of 78 people they wanted Pope John Paul II to see when he visited. All these people died for the faith in this horrible civil war. They definitely considered him an important part of the story. Some of the others have also been beatified. Ten indigenous Kʼicheʼ — three priests and seven lay people. Wisconsin native James Miller, FSC, martyred in 1982, was beatified in 2019.

Oklahoma is usually considered, you know, flyover country. People don’t pay attention too much to what’s going on here — but here Fr. Stan is! He lived life so fully that the Church has already recognized him as someone that we can look up to in learning how to live our own lives. It’s quite touching.

So, Fr. Stan found commonality between his roots in Oklahoma “flyover country” and the overlooked people he ministered to in Guatemala? Is that another connection?

Scaperlanda: Yes, I agree! God doesn’t waste any details, and that’s certainly visible in the graces he poured on Fr. Stan, allowing him to connect with his parishioners in an intimate, personal way.

Would you say, then, that Fr. Stan’s witness calls us to greater awareness of people on the margins? Particularly those suffering oppression, like immigrants in the U.S. suffering “inhuman treatment,” in the words of Pope Leo?

Scaperlanda: Since I am an immigrant and a refugee, of course I agree — but, more than awareness, what I’ve been emphasizing is Fr. Stan’s gift of presence to his people. He was God-in-the-skin for them, and he models how to do that for us: a shepherd who did not run, who returned to be fully with them, especially in their suffering. This is the image of God that Fr. Stan embodied for them, for us, all the way to his martyrdom.

Many Latinos in the U.S. today are concerned about rising discrimination and hate crimes as well as government policies. Does Fr. Stan’s witness have anything to say to us in this time?

Scaperlanda: I’ve always considered my Spanish culture — my language, my music, and certainly food — part of who I am, and I can turn around and recognize that in other [Hispanic] people. Fr. Stan, as this white farmer from Okarche, didn’t start with that kind of kinship — but he developed it. At the mission, he found that he and the people could become one through our faith, through the things that really matter. I want to learn how to do that better myself.

That’s beautiful. Fr. Stanley was one of those people who, as Pope Francis used to say, sought to build bridges between different communities. There are also those who burn bridges—like those who took his life.

Scaperlanda: Yeah, and by the way, it wasn’t just Guatemala. We know about El Salvador from Archbishop Óscar Romero. All of Central America was kind of on fire during that period. Fr. Stanley was killed just a year after Romero.

It’s funny you mention St. Óscar Romero, because I was going to ask you to comment on the similarities and differences in their stories. I was reminded of Romero’s story watching the film.

Scaperlanda: Is that right? I mean, how could you not? They were both reluctant leaders against what was going on at the beginning. Once they realized what their faith and God’s voice inside them were leading them to, they lived that courage to focus on God and not on what could happen. Most of us are not going to be put in that position — but we’re all in the position of figuring out how to live our faith more fully. How am I going to love the people that are prejudiced, the people that try to be demeaning, because you’re not from where they are?

Fr. Stan wasn’t a national leader like Romero, but he was concerned both with the spiritual well-being of his people and their socioeconomic well-being.

Scaperlanda: He definitely could see how they could improve. He truly was a farmer. The co-op was one step, so they weren’t just working for whoever owned the land, but for themselves. He would come home to Oklahoma, find out what equipment his neighbors were no longer using, and bring all that back to Guatemala. Can you imagine hauling things like that across Central America?

I personally cannot, I’m afraid!

Scaperlanda: Me either. But I like the vision of it.

Archdiocese of Newark Deacon Steven D. Greydanus is the creator of Decent Films, for film appreciation and criticism informed by Catholic faith. He was co-host for the Gabriel Award–winning cable TV show Reel Faith for New Evangelization Television, has appeared frequently on Catholic radio and written for a number of Catholic outlets.

This article originally appeared in The Catholic Spirit and is republished with permission.

Fathom Entertainment will release American Martyr: The Stanley Rother Story exclusively in theaters nationwide for two nights only in English, August 25-26, and one night only in Spanish, August 27. The film is narrated by Academy Award-nominated actor Martin Sheen.

You can view a trailer of the documentary below:

Featured image: Blessed Stanley Rother, a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City who was murdered in 1981 in the Guatemalan village where he ministered to the poor, is pictured in an undated photo. The first martyr from the United States, the priest was beatified by Pope Francis in 2017. (OSV News photo/CNS file, Archdiocese of Oklahoma City archives)