Ten Maryknoll Sisters joined the SHARE Delegation to El Salvador for the 35th Anniversary of the martyrdom of the four churchwomen from November 28 – December 5, 2015. The following is a report back from Maryknoll Sister Veronica Schweyen.
December 2 marked the 35th anniversary of the martyrdom of Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, and American lay missionary Jean Donovan. The four churchwomen were killed in El Salvador by members of a military death squad of the right-wing Salvadoran military-led government, during the brutal civil war that lasted from 1979 – 1992. More than 75,000 people were killed.
One hundred and fifteen people joined the delegation organized by SHARE El Salvador.
One highlight for the delegation was a pilgrimage to the martyrdom site of the four churchwomen to hear first-hand testimonies by people who knew them. We celebrated a Memorial Mass and ten Maryknoll Sisters were present. SHARE spearheaded an initiative to declare this site a national historic monument. This effort came to fruition in a meeting with the deputy director of the Ministry of Tourism, Marlon Vladimir Escamilla Rodriguez. He told the delegation that the site had been approved as a national historic monument.
From there we visited Chalatenango in north of El Salvador, where Maryknoll missioners have worked with the local people since the 1970s and where Sr. Ita Ford and Maura Clarke are buried. The people there extended hospitality to all 115 delegates to stay in various parishioners’ homes.
Photo: Left to right: Maryknoll Sisters Gloria Agnes, Mary Annel, Mary Mullady, Teruko Ito, Margie Kolliner, Jo Lucker, Angela Brannan, and Veronica Schweyen. Seated: Cecilia Vandal, Norie Mojado, at the memorial site for the four churchwomen, December 2, 2015. (Photo courtesy of Sr. Veronica Schweyen)
Another highlight was a visit to the martyrdom site of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the Memorial Wall. The various places that we visited were chosen to show us the sites where many people had witnessed to their faith and had given their lives. On Sunday morning, we visited the National Cathedral where Archbishop Romero is buried. His crypt is in the lower church. The priest who celebrated Mass there with us gave a moving homily and spoke of the years of violence and repression carried out by the military against the people of El Salvador. He said that these crimes were committed with impunity.
We also met with a lawyer working with The Foundation for the Study and Application of Law (FESPAD) who is pursuing legal action against some of the perpetrators of violence during the civil war. A sobering experience was seeing the ‘Memory Monument’ erected in honor of the 45,000 people who have been disappeared or were assassinated in El Salvador since the late 1970s. The lawyer said there are at least 40,000 more names not yet fully documented.
The third highlight was the delegation’s visit to the University of Central America, or UCA, where six Jesuits and their house-keeper and her daughter were killed in 1989. The martyrdom of the churchwomen and the Jesuits are examples that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Many people have been drawn to social justice work after learning these stories. We are grateful for the martyrs and will continue to respond to their witness for peace and justice in El Salvador and the world.
Photo: Site of the memorial to the four churchwomen. The local people built a church and the memorial on the land where the churchwomen were killed. (Photo courtesy Sr. Veronica Schweyen)
Photo: Members of the SHARE El Salvador delegation, with roses after the Memorial Mass, left to right: Jill Severinski, a Loretto volunteer at the Interfaith Community on Latin America, Maryknoll Sr. Margie Kollmer, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Alice Kitchen, a member of Sisters of Loretto, and Maryknoll Sr. Veronica Schweyen. (Photo courtesy Sr. Veronica Schweyen)