Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, Jean Donovan, RIP

Today is the anniversary of the deaths of Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and Cleveland Lay Mission Team Member Jean Donovan in 1980. The four Catholic women were assisting poor people caught up in the civil war then raging in El Salvador, and for that, they were targeted by right-wing death squads operating in the country at the time.

Tim’s El Salvador Blog remembers them and notes the US Senate resolution which commemorates their lives. John Dear wrote a remembrance of one of the churchwomen in 1985 that bears reading on this day.

As someone who recalls the stories of many martyrs during a dark decade of killing there, I hope people draw inspiration and courage from the lives of these women.