Modern Day Martyrs

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Modern Day Martyrs

• The Jean Donovan, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, and
  Maura Clark Story

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El Salvador Missionaries
Jean Donovan
Sr. Dorothy Kazel
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El Salvador Missionaries
Sr. Ita Ford
Sr. Maura Clark
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Come, Follow Me

• Each of these brave women gave up their
  comfortable lives to follow Jesus.
• They did what the rich, young ruler could not do.
• They gave up their possessions.
• They gave up their families.
• They gave up their lives.

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The Rich Young Ruler Matthew 1916-26 16 And
someone came to Him and said, "Teacher, what good
thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life
?" 17 And He said to him, "Why are you asking Me
about what is good ? There is only One who is
good but if you wish to enter into life, keep
the commandments." 18 Then he said to Him, "Which
ones ?" And Jesus said, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT
MURDER YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY YOU
SHALL NOT STEAL YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE
WITNESS 19 HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER and
YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." 20 The
young man said to Him, "All these things I have
kept what am I still lacking ?" 21 Jesus said
to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell
your possessions and give to the poor, and you
will have treasure in heaven and come, follow
Me." 22 But when the young man heard this
statement, he went away grieving for he was one
who owned much property. 23 And Jesus said to His
disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a
rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24
"Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich
man to enter the kingdom of God." 25 When the
disciples heard this, they were very astonished
and said, "Then who can be saved ?" 26 And
looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people
this is impossible, but with God all things are
possible."
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Jean Donovan

• Jean Donovan was born on April 10, 1953.
• She was raised in upper-middle class Connecticut.
• She attended Mary Washington College in Virginia
  and majored in economics.
• At age 20, she studied abroad at the University
  of the City of Cork in Ireland.
• There she met a priest who would change her life,
  Fr. Michael Crowley.

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Growing Pains

• She began attending Legion of Mary meetings led
  by Fr. Crowley.
• Each week he encouraged them to help someone in
  need.
• Fr. Crowley spoke passionately about the
  sufferings of the poor in third world countries
  and the need to help them with material goods and
  justice.
• Crowley challenged them not to waste their lives,
  but to become real Christians by serving the
  poorest of the poor.

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Growing Pains

• Jean joined the Legion of Mary student group and
  began serving the sick and poor.
• Crowley told the group to identify with them
  (poor), feel their insecurity, their rejection,
  then you begin to understand the world in a new
  way.
• Slowly, Jean began to realize that she could live
  without her many possessions, and that through
  loving service, she could find happiness.

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Who do you say that I am?

• After graduation and after starting a new job,
  she decided that her life was not fulfilling and
  to achieve a deep and internal peace, she needed
  to change her life.
• Despite concern from her family, she decided to
  join the lay missionary program in El Salvador.
• She joined the Cleveland mission team and became
  a Maryknoll lay missioner in Central America.

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Dorothy Kazel

• Born June 30, 1939
• Joined the Ursuline Sisters - a teaching order in
  Cleveland, OH, in 1960.
• Before entering, she was engaged to be married
  but felt called to the religious life.
• She postponed her marriage to test her calling
  and remained with the Ursulines until her death.

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Sr. Dorothys Commitment to the Poor

• Dorothys brother, James, said of her decision,
  She wanted to work with the people who didnt
  have the advantages of the people in the United
  States. She wanted to spread the Gospel to people
  who needed help.

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Faith, Hope, and Charity

• A friend of Dorothy and Jean states, They went
  to El Salvador, a country named after the Savior
  of the World, to preach the good news to the
  poor.
• They trained catechists, assisted in formation
  of basic Christian communities, and oversaw the
  distribution of Catholic Relief aid and food
  supplies.

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Faith, Hope, and Charity

• They worked with the refugees securing food and
  medical supplies, finding shelters for them,
  taking the sick and wounded to medical clinics.
• In the process of these duties, they fell in
  love with the beauty and warmth of the Salvadoran
  people.

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Jeans Journey to Solidarity with the Poor

• During the 1970s, the Catholic church began to
  speak out against injustice and oppression.
• Priests and church workers pressed for justice
  for the poor, an end to violence, and for basic
  human rights of food, shelter, and equal share of
  land.

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Jeans Journey to Solidarity with the Poor

• Jeans missionary group was based in the town of
  La Libertad as was Sr. Dorothy Kazel.
• At first, Jean found it difficult to adjust to
  life in rural El Salvador. La Libertad had
  already suffered some of the worst violence of
  the time.
• Jean found herself living without hot water,
  without plumbing, without TV, and without various
  other luxuries that she once took for granted.
• After 1 month in El Salvador, Jean wrote to a
  friend. I keep getting frustrated and wonder
  what I am doing here as opposed to being married.
  Sometimes Ill think Oh my God, Im 26 years
  old, I should be married.

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Blessed are the Poor In Spirit

• Jean quickly fell in love with the Salvadoran
  people. The poor began to teach about love. They
  shared their lives, their suffering, and their
  hope.
• Jean said, The poor really strip you, pull you,
  challenge you, evangelize you, show you God.

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Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

• People were being killed everyday, every hour,
  throughout the country. Their bodies were left
  on the street. When you see police here, Jean
  wrote, you certainly dont feel theyre gong to
  protect you. You feel like theyre going to shoot
  you.
• In April 1980, government death squads killed
  several young catechists and community leaders,
  and destroyed the churchs alter and the house of
  the pastor. In May 1980, hundreds of Salvadoran
  refugees were brutally murdered as they tried to
  cross the border between El Salvador and
  Honduras.
• Things now are so much worse, its
  unbelievable, Jean wrote to Fr. Crowley in late
  May 1980. People are being killed daily. We
  just found out that three people from our area
  had been taken, tortured and hacked to death.

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Ita Ford

• Ita Ford, born April 23, 1940, was a Maryknoll
  Sister who served as a missionary in Bolivia,
  Chile, and El Salvador. She worked with the poor
  and war refugees.
• In Chalatenango, where Ita Ford worked, the
  violence was just as brutal. Jean told Fr.
  Crowley, Theyve got bodies lying all over and
  no one can bury them because they get shot if
  they try.
• The nuns got a message to leave in 6 days or
  they were gong to be killed. People dont have
  liberty to do anything. They have to take a side.
  And its very hard to take a particular side.
  Its so much harder to fight for your liberty in
  a nonviolent way than it is with a gun.

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Journey to the Cross

• Ita Ford admitted that most of their efforts were
  aimed simply so they could keep walking down
  this dark road without becoming as dark as the
  situation.
• You say you dont want anything to happen to me,
  Ita wrote her sister. Id prefer it that way
  myself, but I dont see that we have control over
  the forces of madness, and if you choose to enter
  into other peoples suffering, or to love others,
  you at least have to consent in some way to the
  possible consequences. Actually, what Ive
  learned here is that death is not the worst evil.
  We live with these evils, hate, manipulation,
  selfishness. We look death in the face everyday.
  But the cause of the death is evil. Thats what
  we have to wrestle and fight against.

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Maura Clark

• Maryknoll sister, Maura Clark, replaced a sister
  and co-worker of Ita Ford who was killed in the
  violence.
• Sr. Mauras friends expressed concern that she
  was going into the war zones of El Salvador. She
  was previously assigned to work in Nicaragua.
• She told her friends, If we leave the people
  when they suffer the cross, how credible is our
  word to them? The churchs role is to accompany
  those who suffer the most, and to witness our
  hope in the resurrection.

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The End Is Only The Beginning

• Jean and Dorothy drove to the airport to pick up
  Ita and Maura who were returning from a
  conference in Managua.
• The four women were last seen alive leaving the
  airport.
• Two days later, their bodies were discovered in a
  shallow grave about fifteen miles away from the
  airport.

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Message to the World

• Jean, Dorothy, Ita, and Maura were ordinary
  people who struggled with the harsh realities of
  the world and decided to do something about them.
• When we think of these heroic women, we are
  struck by the seriousness of their faith, their
  commitment to the poor, their insistence on
  justice and peace, and their willingness to give
  their lives for oppressed people.

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Lessons of a Disciple

• Jean and the Sisters lives is an example of how
  to accept Gods call to discipleship giving up
  all that we have and dying to the flesh.
• Identification and solidarity with the poor the
  more they let go and the more they connected with
  suffering people, the greater was their freedom,
  grace, joy, and hope. In the face of the poor,
  these women found the face of Jesus. In the faces
  of the Ecuadoran people, they discovered the
  presence of the living God.
• Internal peace and joy worldly possessions
  cannot give us the kind of peace and joy that
  these missionaries found in helping people.

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The meaning of Jean and the sisters life and
death, as well as other martyrs, is not just in
their sacrifice and their witness, but in the
call to follow in their footsteps, to enter into
the life of the poor and marginalized, to
struggle for justice with them, to stand with
them, to defend them, to speak out for them, and
to become one them. Jesus calls us to walk the
road of peace and to become Gods instruments of
justice and peace.
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Bibliography

• Pax Christi USA www.paxchristiusa.org JEAN
  DONOVAN AND THE CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP