By Mindy Ragan Wood
Staff Writer
Holy Trinity Catholic Church welcomed a new priest this week with the installment of Father Cory Stanley as they prepare for the annual carnival on July 27.
“His first mass will be Wednesday (July 3),” Nancy Schudalla said. “He’s coming up from a parish in Altus.”
Stanley was ordained in July 2011 after spending eight years in seminary at Conception Seminary in Missouri and Pontifical North American College in Rome. His home church was at Holy Spirit in Mustang but was baptized as an infant at St. Mathew’s Parish in Elk City.
Punch and cookies will be served following mass on July 6-7 and July 13-14 in the parish hall as a meet and greet time with the new priest.
The carnival will see not only a new face in Father Stanley, but what might prove to be a new tradition as well.
Father Donald Wolf, cousin to Blessed Stanley Rother, will present an audio book he wrote about Rother’s last visit home before his death. Rother was murdered by militants in Guatemala where he served as priest until death on July 28, 1981.
“This is about his last trip back home in May 1981 and that was for Father Wolf’s ordination,” William Cathey said.
Cathey produced the audio CD in conjunction with Oklahoma Catholic Radio.
“He (Rother) saw his family and friends. It’s about him going back and his death. The name of the CD is ‘The Last Look in the Light: The Final Journey of Father Stanley Rother to Oklahoma.’ He (Wolf) wrote the script. It has music behind it too, so it’s not just an audio book with a story being read.”
Following the 5 p.m. mass Wolf will conduct the presentation at 6:15 which will include a question and answer time.
Wolf said a letter that his cousin had written him just after his own ordination in May 1981 has stayed with him all these years.
“On June 1, Stan wrote me a letter. He was in Guatemala and I got it later that week. In it he described some of the things that were going on. At the very end of the letter he wrote that he had heard there were some priests in the diocese who want to be served rather than serve. I don’t ever want to be that priest. I’ve been ordained 38 years and sometimes that’s me. It’s a temptation, to be served, that we all have. Sometimes the call to service is something you don’t want to do, but the invitation to remain focused on that is a reminder that I need all the time.”
Wolf remembered Rother speaking about the dangers he faced during his last visit, but with a tone and demeanor that also stayed with him.
“He talked openly about the dangerous he faced,” Wolf recalled.
It was a “very matter of fact,” conversation, Wolf said.
“Because he talked about it like that, you don’t realize the magnitude of that until you start thinking, ‘he’s talking about the possibility of being taken and tortured to death’ and his response to that.”
Wolf’s CD was published last year, but Cathey said this is a new edition with 15 minutes added to the story of Rother’s last visit.
“It talks about Father Rother’s opinions about service,” Cathey said. “It’s a new edition and it’s about 45 minutes long.”
CARNIVAL FUN
The carnival will feature games and attractions for children including a wagon ride and inflatables. Hamburgers, cold beer and other refreshments will be served. The event is sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and is held every year in honor of Rother’s life and martyrdom for 38 years.
The Rother Men will hold its second annual Rosary Run in honor of Rother’s life from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The ride brings together Catholic believers on a motorcycle circuit with each stop observing faith aspects of the rosary.
The ride will begin at St. Andrew The Apostle Catholic Church, 800 NW 5th Street in Moore and continue to Gospel of Life Disciples Dwelling St. John II, 4113 S. Eastern Avenue in Moore, to the site of the Bl. Stanley Rother Shrine, 89th and Shields in Moore, to St. James the Greater Catholic Church, 4201 S. McKinley Avenue, to Resurrection Memorial Cemetery, 7500 W. Britton Road in Oklahoma City and will conclude at the Catholic Pastoral Center, 7501 NW Highway in Oklahoma City. The cost is $8.50.
