BrandoFan Posted November 29, 2003 Share Posted November 29, 2003 The destinies of Sr. Maura Clarke, Sr. Ita Ford, Sr. Dorothy Kazel, and Jean Donovan were joined together in just the last months of their lives. Murdered together by National Guardsmen in El Salvador on December 2, 1980, their deaths became martyrdom for a church of the poor in El Salvador and for thousands of Christians in the United States. On the evening of that December 2, Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan drove their van to the airport outside San Salvador to pick up Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford who were returning from a Maryknoll regional assembly in Managua. After leaving the airport, their van was commandeered at a road block by members of El Salvador's National Guard. They were taken to an isolated location, raped and shot, then buried in a shallow grave along a roadside. Their deaths are understood as martyrdom because the women did what Jesus of Nazareth did, and what he told us we should do to show we are disciples in this world - they loved the poor, and laid down their lives for them.... ...Maura had been pondering the appeal of Archbishop Romero for help in El Salvador. On August 5, just two and a half weeks before the death of Sr. Carla Piette, Maura Clark went to El Salvador to explore the possibility of working there. It was a hard decision - to leave behind 20 years of relationships in Nicaragua at such an exciting moment in its history, and to take on the human and pastoral challenge of El Salvador in a time of persecution. After Carla's death on August 23 Maura decided to take her place working at Ita Ford's side. She was quickly immersed in the emergency work among the victims of the repression. "We have the refugees, women and children, outside our door and some of their stories are incredible. What is happening here is all so impossible, but happening. The endurance of the poor and their faith through this terrible pain is constantly pulling me to a deeper faith response." The days were often difficult and the internal struggle radically challenging. "My fear of death is being challenged constantly as children, lovely young girls, old people are being shot and some cut up with machetes and bodies thrown by the road and people prohibited from burying them... One cries out: Lord how long? And then too what creeps into my mind is the little fear, or big, that when it touches me very personally, will I be faithful?" Maura decided she would stay in El Salvador. She and Ita, and two other Maryknoll Sisters working in El Salvador, traveled in November to Nicaragua for the regional assembly. It was there that Maura affirmed her commitment before all the Maryknoll Sisters of the Central America region. She said she would remain in El Salvador... She told them the days would be difficult and dangerous, but assured the other sisters of her "certain confidence in God's loving care of her, Ita, and all the people." "I want to stay on now," Maura wrote. "I believe now that this is right...Here I am starting from scratch but it must be His plan and He is teaching me and there is real peace in spite of many frustrations and the terror around us and the work, etc. God is very present in His seeming absence." The day following the assembly, on 2 December 1980, Maura, Dorothy, Jean, and Ita gave their all, as the vicims of rape and murder, for the people of El Salvador. Didn't Oliver Stone touch on it in his movie circa mid-80s? With James Wood, no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted November 29, 2003 Share Posted November 29, 2003 brandofan, you are a person among persons that you read the bulletin all the way through! http://www.uln.com/cgi-bin/vlink/027616862...le=Salvador-DVD The movie, Salvador, I have not seen in a while. Archbishop Oscar Romero was murdered in the midst of the communion liturgy by (US supported and financed) soldiers of Robert d'Aubisson on 24 March 1980. http://salt.claretianpubs.org/romero/rindex.html Later that year, on December 2, the 3 sisters and 1 layworker were raped and murdered by the same security forces. Again I haven't seen the movie in perhaps a decade and a half. I am sure that the rape and murder of the missionaries is included. The murder of Archbishop Romero shocked a lot of people and started people asking questions about just what was going on there and what were we supporting. The vicious rape and murder of the missionaries months later really brought the outrage to American church bodies, who fought with the outgoing Carter administration and the Reagan administration for years over aid to the right wing paramilitary. The National Council of Churches (essentially protestant) and the Roman Catholic Maryknoll missionaries were the key opponents of the Carter/Reagan policies. The Oliver Stone movie, as well as the movie Romero with Raul Julia, were helpful in our consciousness raising. Brings back a rush of memories. A friend of mine, Fr. Jack King, had to leave Salvador when the death threats came from the (US financed) security forces. It was in maybe 1981 or 1982 as I recall that the security forces moved through a Catholic complex and butchered priests and laity. I fought the US policies for years through the church. Did we do any good? In time the US turned away from D'Aubisson and the puppet regime of Duarte. The security forces reign of terror in Salvador ceased. But it took far too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 brandofan - someone else on a church list read my bulletin all the way through and posted this on the list about Maura Clark: I wish to thank those on this list who brought to remembrance the lives of My friend Sr. Maura Clarke who died on Dec. 2, 1980 along with her fellow servants of our Lord at the hands of a US Trained Death Squad of El Salvadoran Soldiers. Sr. Ita Ford, Sr. Dorothy Kazel, and Jean Donovan. Just before Sr. Maura went to El Salvador she visited my former parish St. Pius X and my old and dear Friend Fr. George Kloster who is still a Roman Catholic Priest in the Applacian Mountains of N.C. THe Sunday Sr. Maura presented the need for solidarity and action in El Salvador we had a number of hard line members of the parish accuse her and Fr. George of being communists. Yet that same day the three of us gathered at our own small faith community composed of Catholic and Protestant members. Ours was a Small inter-denominational Community that shared a small communion meal each Sun. evening with either my friend and pastor Fr. George, myself still a non-denomiantional minister too or my close associtate a Presby. minister presiding over a Taize style liturgy with the community gathered in a circle around the Bread and Wine. I can still remember that Sunday because Sr. Maura was flying to El Salvador that very same week. She was fearfull, yet she knew many others faced fear every day of their lives. That night following the communion over a dinner of rice and beans we prayed over our Sister and sent her on her way. Little did we know that we were to be among the last in the USA who would see her alive. Faith that causes a person to go beyond self... to see the love of Christ as their only motivation in reaching out to a world in need of the healing faith in Christ brings me much hope for tomorrow. While it is true justice was never done, the US gov't that sponsored the death squads, Senators like Jesse Helms who gave them aid and encouragement, the CIA that provided intelligence and those who by their silence still today allow needless suffering to take place around the world. I dare say that Sr. Maura cries out for truth, but even more, for a turning away from violence and war to peace and the Love of Christ. May we learn how to be Instruments of peace.. the peace that passes all udnerstanding. A peace that reaches beyond all of our own perceptions of time and presence, to see Christ once again showing himself to us upon the cross, TO see Christ beckoning us to join him in the UpperRoom, to stand on the hillside as he arose to be with the Father. May we at this advent in the midst of War bring His Peace into our hearts and souls. God Bless all who are in truth Christ to the World. Fr. Jim Waters+ Portland, OR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LowerCaseRepublican Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 I met a lot of Maryknoll clergy when I was in Georgia Nov. 21-23. Very powerful experience [along with the thousands of others that were there] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 were you there for a school of the americas action? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LowerCaseRepublican Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 were you there for a school of the americas action? Nov. 21-23 this year was the Close the SOA action organized by SOA watch. More than 10,000 showed up. A group of us from here drove down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted December 2, 2003 Share Posted December 2, 2003 because today is the day bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.