An American priest assassinated in Guatemala in 1981 has moved a step closer to sainthood. On Friday, the Vatican declared Rev. Stanley Rother to be a martyr. Rother was killed by a right-wing death squad in his church rectory. He died on the same day U.S.-backed Guatemalan troops killed 13 people and wounded 24 others in the same town where he was shot. Stanley Rother is the first American to ever be declared a martyr by the Catholic Church.