Year after year, the slain priest's childhood church celebrates a special anniversary Mass remembering the sacrifice Rother made to serve Mayan descendants in a poor, mountain village 50 miles west of Guatemala City.
But this year, the memorial service took on added meaning and drew a larger crowd: Last December, Pope Francis recognized the Oklahoma native as the Catholic Church's first U.S. priest and martyr to be approved for beatification. The Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of the Saints declared Rother had fulfilled the requirement of having died due to “hatred of the faith.”
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