40 years ago, Dec 2 1980, four North American church women in San Salvador were shot by Salvadoran troops, and buried in a shallow grave in a cow pasture. They were Maryknoll Srs Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Dorothy Kazal, lay missioner Jean Donovan (age 27).
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Incoming officials of the Reagan admin aided the coverup--Jeanne Kirkpatrick claiming that "the nuns were not just nuns, but political activists." Alexander Haig floated the theory that they had tried to run a road block and got caught in an "exchange of gunfire."
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These "theories" had nothing to do with the available facts--that they had been targeted for assassination by high-ranking officers, detained on the road and transported to the site of their murder, where two of them were raped.
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In death they joined thousands of poor Salvadorans whose only crime was believing that another world was possible. Inspired by the call of Oscar Romero they had come to serve the poor--heeding his warning that those who side with the poor must "risk the same fate as the poor."
Jean Donovan left behind a promising career and possible marriage but stayed despite the clear risks. "Several times I have decided to leave"--except for the kids. "Who would care for them? Whose heart would be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears?"
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Each of the sisters struggled with fear and prayed that if the worst came they would be faithful. In the end, witnesses to the cross, they became witnesses to the resurrection. They died not simply for clinging to their faith but for clinging, like Jesus, to the poor. PRESENTE!
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