Journalist Penny Lernoux died 30 years ago, Oct 9 1999. During the 1970s she courageously documented two related stories in Latin America: the spread of fascist dictatorships and the transformation of the Catholic Church in response to the Cry of the People (her book title).
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She died at 49 one month after being diagnosed with cancer. At the time she was writing a history of the Maryknoll Srs. (Having been inspired by her work to the path that led me to I was proud, after her death, to help complete her final book.) Dying, she wrote:
“I feel like I’m walking down a new path. It’s not physical fear...rather a sense of helplessness—that I who always wanted to be the champion of the poor am just as helpless—that I must hold out my begging bowl; that I must learn the ultimate powerlessness of Christ...
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“It is a cleansing experience. So many things seem less important, or not at all, especially the ambitions.” Her own faith had been renewed by her encounter with Maryknoll Sisters like Ita Ford and Maura Clarke. She was buried in the cemetery of the Sisters’ Motherhouse.
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