St. Rita pastor: Mass ‘deeply spiritual’

September 28, 2017
Christina Gray

Father Ken Weare, pastor of St. Rita Parish in Fairfax, was in Oklahoma City to participate in the beatification Mass for Father Stanley Rother. Father Weare, who served Communion during the Mass, was invited in connection with St. Rita’s longtime support of Father Rother’s former parish and surrounding villages in Guatemala.

Since 2001, the St. Rita Guatemala Mission Program has funded the construction of a preschool, elementary school, high school, two churches, a rectory, a convent and a multi-purpose room in or near Santiago Atitlan. The mission has also helped rebuild a hospital and developed a carpentry school, and each year sends a cargo container of school and household supplies. A parish delegation visits mission sites each summer to celebrate Mass with the community.

“The beatification ceremony was a deeply spiritual celebration of the social justice ministry of Blessed Stanley Rother, who served the poor, and gave his life for them,” Father Weare told Catholic San Francisco in an email.