Remembering and Commemorating the Lives and Work of United States Churchwomen Executed in El Salvador in 1980

REMEMBERING AND COMMEMORATING THE LIVES AND WORK OF UNITED STATES CHURCHWOMEN EXECUTED IN EL SALVADOR IN 1980 -- (House of Representatives - December 14, 2005)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I wish to express my gratitude and appreciation to the leadership on both sides of the aisle for bringing this resolution to the House floor before we adjourn for the year. I especially want to thank Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Chairman Burton, Subcommittee Ranking Member Menendez, House International Relations Committee Chairman Hyde, Ranking Member Lantos, Majority Leader BLUNT, Democratic Leader Pelosi, Speaker Hastert, Rules Committee Chairman Dreier and all of their staffs.

Mr. Speaker, on December 2, 1980, Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clark and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and Cleveland lay missionary Jean Donovan were brutally violated and murdered by members of the Salvadoran national guard. The guardsmen who pulled the triggers and their immediate superior, a sub-sergeant, were tried, convicted and imprisoned in 1984 for these heinous crimes, although they were later released in 1997 and 1998. But I am not here today to recall these tragic events. I am here to remember and honor their lives.

These four courageous American women dedicated their lives to the safety and welfare of others, to the poor and the desperate of El Salvador, especially the women and children left homeless and destitute by the violence and the war of that era. It is the way that they lived their lives and the work that they carried out that has proven to be so inspirational to so many people in the 25 years since their death and especially the young people who are looking for role models, both secular and spiritual, to guide their own futures.

I had the privilege to spend December 1 through December 6 in El Salvador and to participate in the many 25th anniversary events organized by the Maryknoll Sisters and other Salvadoran and American religious leaders honoring the lives of these four wonderful women. I was a member of a delegation coordinated by the Washington office on Latin America and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. Our delegation joined over 200 other Americans and an equal number of religious representatives from throughout Central and South America and elsewhere. During our 5 days in El Salvador, we walked in the footsteps of these women. We visited small rural communities where they lived and worked. We met with the campesinos, the priests and the sisters with whom they labored. We attended mass, and we worshipped at the site where their bodies were found.

And we listened to the members of their families and their religious orders tell stories of their lost loved ones that brought these women vividly and joyously to life for all of us.

While it was a time of sorrow and remembered grief, it was also a time of celebration, for these four American women are remembered with great love and affection by the Salvadoran people and by so many Americans across our country. Their spirits burn bright and have served to inspire many others, including young people, to lives of service. Who now remembers those who brutalized and murdered them, unless it is with a shudder?

Several 25th anniversary events were held here in the United States during the December 2 weekend in cities as diverse as Kansas City, Boston, Cleveland, Seattle, Detroit, and Milwaukee. Across our country we will also find community centers, neighborhood health clinics, and groups that provide counseling for young women and mothers dedicated to these four women. We will find libraries, schools, and scholarly centers named in their honor and books, films, plays and music created to celebrate their lives.

In El Salvador, throughout Latin America, and even around the world, it is common to come across communities and humanitarian projects named after Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, Ita Ford, and Dorothy Kazel.

I have been very privileged to get to know some of the family members of these women, and I have long been a friend of the Maryknoll Sisters. A finer group of people one simply cannot find. It is for them, the families, friends, and colleagues of these four church women that I am proud the House is acting on this special remembrance of their loved ones who have been lost to them these past 25 years but who always remain, as they say in Spanish, ``presente'' in their hearts, minds, and souls.

I believe these four American women represent the very best our country has to offer. They represent the best values and ideals, not only of the American people but of all people. My recent time in El Salvador inspired me. It reenergized me. It reminded me that we must remain committed to continuing the church women's legacy by helping the poor and disadvantaged of El Salvador develop their communities and create a more hopeful future for all.

I urge my colleagues to approve of H. Res. 458 and to remember the very special lives dedicated to service of Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, Ita Ford, and Dorothy Kazel.

Statement on the 25th Anniversary of the Four Missionary Women--Bishop Thomas G. Wenski, Bishop of Orlando, Chairman, USCCB Committee on International Policy, November 21, 2005.

Twenty-five years ago, many throughout the world were shocked by the news of the abduction, rape and murder on December 2nd 1980 of four American missionary women in El Salvador. That same year saw the intensification of the civil war in that country that was dramatically marked first by the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero on March 24th and, nearly a decade later, by the slaughter of six Jesuit priests and their two aides at the Central American University on December 16th 1989.

There can be little doubt that the sacrificial deaths--the martyrdoms--of these exemplary Christians, representing the episcopate, the life of vowed religious men and women, and the Catholic laity. Nor is there doubt that the findings of those guilty for these crimes served to hasten the end of that fratricidal war that was finally concluded with the January 1992 Peace Accords.

Sister Maura Clarke, MM, Sister Ita Ford, MM, both of the Maryknoll Sisters, Sister Dorothy Kazel, OSU of the Sisters of St. Ursula, and lay missionary Jean Donovan of the Cleveland Diocesan Mission team were all young, dynamic, deeply committed missionaries. They saw the face of Christ in the poorest and most vulnerable of the people of El Salvador and sought to offer what aid and consolation they could provide. In the poisonous political atmosphere of the time, their concern for ``the least of these'' was seen by some as a challenge to an unjust status quo.

May we today rededicate ourselves, together with the bishops and faithful of El Salvador and all of Central America, to the task of peace, justice and reconciliation throughout the Americas for which these exemplary women gave their lives.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://thomas.loc.gov