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December 20, 2019Fr. Ramon Carlin
According to Father James White, a diocesan historian, Father Ramon Carlin “was a rare person. He both warmed hearts and heated blood pressures. He was a pied piper and an agitator. His life, in the words of the old liturgical rubrics, was a moveable feast.”
Born in Haskell on July 20, 1916, Ramon Andrew Carlin was ordained on May 9, 1941, in the service of the Diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Nicknamed “Tex” because of a large Stetson hat, he served in various assignments until he found his niche in missionary work.
Acknowledging the call of Pope John XXIII to provide missionaries for Central America, Bishop
Victor Reed gave his permission to send an Oklahoma contingent to the village of Santiago Atitlan in Guatemala beginning in 1964. Father Carlin was named the head of the missionary staff.
An organizer of great talent, he began to envision the needs of the mission and how to accomplish them. While sometimes handicapped due to his blunt demeanor, it served him well in getting difficult tasks completed. A force of nature, he made substantial improvements in education, health care as a hospital was constructed, and the liturgical involvement of the laity.
Due to his persistence and oversight, he formed a language school in Antigua, Guatemala, to develop a written version of the local Tzʼutujil dialect. He also was instrumental in bringing an eager young priest by the name of Father Stanley Rother to share his talents to serve the mission.
By 1972, Father Carlin’s zeal for missionary work had waned and his eccentric personality had worn thin. After a leave absence from 1972-1976, he returned to active ministry in Oklahoma only to die of a heart attack while driving home to his assignment in Apache.
Despite his personality quirks, Father Ramon Carlin is a critical figure in the history of the Church in Oklahoma. His intelligence and imagination helped to bring about a successful missionary venture and allowed the goodness and ability of Blessed Stanley Rother to blossom.
