Most weeks, I send out a “live” version of Weekend Plug-in.
This week, though, I expected to be on an airplane as this e-newsletter began arriving in readers’ inboxes. So if any UFOs got shot out of the sky this weekend, don’t look for the religion angle right here, right now.
But please do enjoy this prescheduled roundup of the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
What To Know: The Big Story
Blessed Stanley: A dedication Mass for a $50 million shrine honoring the Catholic Church’s first U.S.-born martyr was held in Oklahoma City. I wrote about the life — and death — of slain missionary Stanley Francis Rother for The Associated Press.
My story notes:
The Spanish colonial-style structure incorporates a 2,000-seat sanctuary as well as a visitor center, gift shop, museum and smaller chapel that will serve as Rother’s final resting place.
The shrine grounds also will feature a re-creation of Tepeyac Hill, the Mexico City site where Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared to an Indigenous Mexican man named Juan Diego in 1531. An artist created painted bronze statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego — each weighing thousands of pounds — for the Oklahoma site.
Life and ministry: For the best in-depth coverage of Rother and the shrine, be sure to follow The Oklahoman’s faith editor, Carla Hinton, who has covered this story for years.
Among her features this week: a detailed look at the shrine museum and an exploration of how “Rother’s heart has remained with his beloved Guatemalan parishioners.”
A final shrine note: I first wrote about Rother in 2001 during my time as religion editor for The Oklahoman. In 2017, I did a Religion News Service feature on the love for “Father Stan” in his hometown of Okarche, Oklahoma.
