What are YOU waiting for?
Web Posted: Nov. 29, 2004
Clockwise from top left: Jean Donovan, Sr. Ita Ford, M.M., Sr.
Maura Clarke, M.M. and Sr. Dorothy Kazel, O.S.U. |
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The chill of winter is upon us. It is the first week of Advent, the
time in the Christian year that is marked by patient and faithful waiting:
waiting for winter’s darkness to pass, waiting for our hearts to be renewed,
waiting for the Christ-coming. In the frenzied rush of the semester’s
end and the holiday season, waiting does not come easily, and each of us might
well wonder, “What is it, this year, that I am waiting for?”
On December 2, 1980, four American churchwomen – Maryknoll volunteer
Jean Donovan and Sisters Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, and Dorothy Kazel – were
stopped by a group of Salvadoran national guardsmen, on their way home from
the airport in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. The four women
worked together for the Archdiocese, assisting refugees who were escaping war
and military oppression. They had seen what happened to individuals who
spoke out against the government, many of whom were listed among the “disappeared” of
the country. Each of the women had multiple opportunities to leave El
Salvador. The young Jean Donovan had, in fact, just attended the wedding
of a friend in Ireland, but the faces of the Salvadoran people pulled her back
to life with them. These four were Advent women; they waited with their
people for justice and liberation and God’s peace.
As the van stopped at the barricade, the women were taken from it, raped,
shot, and left by the roadside. News of their murders spread quickly,
and a flurry of media attention followed. Initial attempts by the Salvadoran
government to cast them as political dissidents were soon abandoned, as the
story of their simple, selfless lives grew clearer. Later reports revealed
that their murders were ordered by senior government officials, most of whom
were never held accountable for the crimes.
Now, twenty-four years since their deaths, it might be tempting to see the
lives of Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, Jean Donovan and Maura Clarke as wasted – after
all, it would be some time until relative peace came to El Salvador, and the
work they did was neither grandiose nor strategic. But the martyrdom
of these four women and their faithful waiting with the people of El
Salvador changed the spirit of the Salvadoran people and continues to touch
the faith of those who learn about their story. Their lives call each
of us more deeply into Advent waiting. With whom are we in solidarity
and what is it, this year, that we are waiting for?
For further information on the lives of the four American churchwomen of El
Salvador, visit the American
Martyrs in El Salvador Web site.
