[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 176 (Wednesday, November 14, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14419-S14420]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            COMMEMORATING THE LIVES OF THE MARYKNOLL SISTERS

  Mr. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the 
immediate consideration of S. Res. 381 submitted earlier today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 381) remembering and commemorating 
     the lives and work of Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita 
     Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and Cleveland Lay 
     Mission Team Member Jean Donovan, who were executed by 
     members of the Armed Forces of El Salvador on December 2, 
     1980.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent to be added as a cosponsor of 
this measure.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I am grateful to my colleagues for 
joining me in passing a resolution which remembers the lives of four 
American women who continue to be a source of great inspiration.
  Mr. President, on December 2, 1980, two Maryknoll Sisters, Maura 
Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and Cleveland Team 
lay missionary Jean Donovan were brutally violated and murdered by 
members of the Salvadoran National Guard. We do not wish to revisit the 
events of those difficult times in Central America with this 
resolution. We wish to remember and honor the love and dedication these 
women of faith showed to those they came to serve.
  Two years ago, on the December 2 anniversary of the brutal deaths of 
these four American women, several 25th anniversary events were held in 
the United States including one at Milwaukee's Saint Therese Church in 
my home State of Wisconsin. I was pleased that the House passed a 
resolution honoring the lives of the four missionaries in the year of 
the 25th anniversary. Unfortunately, one or more members of this body 
anonymously blocked the Senate from passing a similar resolution to 
commemorate the 25th anniversary of the murder of these nuns. Along 
with my cosponsors, I am pleased that the Senate is now appropriately 
honoring these women with the passage of this resolution.
  Mr. President, remembering these women is a very personal and moving 
thing for those who actually knew them, but it is also truly powerful 
for those who have only learned of them after their deaths. I had the 
opportunity several years ago to meet many of their family members and 
have become well aware of one of the churchwomen, Sister Ita Ford, 
through my chief of staff and her aunt, Jean Reardon Baumann, who was a 
dear friend of Ita's from their childhood together in Brooklyn, New 
York.
  I would like to share with my colleagues a letter Sister Ita Ford 
wrote to her niece in August of 1980:

       Dear Jennifer, the odds that this note will arrive for your 
     birthday are poor, but know I'm with you in spirit as you 
     celebrate 16 big ones. I hope it's a special day for you. I 
     want to say something to you and I wish I were there to talk 
     to you because sometimes letters don't get across all the 
     meaning and feeling. But, I'll give it a try anyway.
       First of all, I love you and care about you and how you 
     are. I'm sure you know that. That holds if you're an angel or 
     a goof-off, a genius or a jerk. A lot of that is up to you, 
     and what you decide to do with your life. What I want to say 
     . . . some of it isn't too jolly birthday talk, but it's 
     real. . . . Yesterday I stood looking down at a 16-year-old 
     who had been killed a few hours earlier. I know a lot of kids 
     even younger who are dead. This is a terrible time in El 
     Salvador for youth. A lot of idealism and commitment is 
     getting snuffed out here now. The reasons why so many people 
     are being killed are quite complicated, yet there are some 
     clear, simple strands. One is that many people have found a 
     meaning to life, to sacrifice, to struggle, and even to 
     death. And whether their life span is 16 years, 60 or 90, for 
     them, their life has had a purpose. In many ways, they are 
     fortunate people.
       Brooklyn is not passing through the drama of El Salvador, 
     but some things hold true wherever one is, and at whatever 
     age. What I'm saying is, I hope you come to find that which 
     gives life a deep meaning for you . . . something worth 
     living for, maybe even worth dying for . . . something that 
     energizes you, enthuses you, enables you to keep moving 
     ahead. I can't tell you what it might be--that's for you to 
     find, to choose, to love. I can just encourage you to start 
     looking, and support you in the search. Maybe this sounds 
     weird and off-the-wall, and maybe, no one else will talk to 
     you like this, but then, too, I'm seeing and living things 
     that others around you aren't. . . . I want to say to you: 
     don't waste the gifts and opportunities you have to make 
     yourself and other people happy. . . . I hope this doesn't 
     sound like some kind of a sermon because I don't mean it that 
     way. Rather, it's something you learn here, and I want to 
     share it with you. In fact, it's my birthday present to you. 
     If it doesn't make sense right at this moment, keep this and 
     read it sometime from now. Maybe it will be clearer . . .
       A very happy birthday to you and much, much love,
                                                              Ita.

  From that one letter alone, I am sure that others will understand the 
kind of people these women were, and the impact they continue to have 
on us all.
  I also want to thank, in particular, my friend from Massachusetts 
Congressman Jim McGovern and his staff who have led the efforts in 
Congress to appropriately remember these four courageous American women 
who dedicated their lives to their faith and to the service of others.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, 
the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the 
table en bloc, and that any statements relating thereto be printed in 
the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 381) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 381

       Whereas on December 2, 1980, four churchwomen from the 
     United States, Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, 
     Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and Cleveland Lay Mission Team 
     Member Jean Donovan, were violated and executed by members of 
     the National Guard of El Salvador;
       Whereas in 1980, Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita 
     Ford were working in the parish of the Church of San Juan 
     Bautista in Chalatenango, El Salvador, providing food, 
     transportation, and other assistance to refugees, and 
     Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and Cleveland Lay Mission Team 
     Member Jean Donovan were working in the parish of the Church 
     of the Immaculate Conception in La Libertad, El Salvador, 
     providing assistance and support to refugees and other 
     victims of violence;
       Whereas these four churchwomen from the United States 
     dedicated their lives to working with the poor of El 
     Salvador, especially women and children left homeless, 
     displaced, and destitute by the civil war in El Salvador;
       Whereas these four churchwomen from the United States were 
     among the more than 70,000 civilians who were murdered during 
     the course of the civil war in El Salvador;
       Whereas on May 23 and May 24, 1984, five members of the 
     National Guard of El Salvador, Subsergeant Luis Antonio 
     Colindres Aleman, Daniel Canales Ramirez, Carlos Joaquin 
     Contreras Palacios, Francisco Orlando Contreras Recinos, and 
     Jose Roberto Moreno Canjura, were found guilty by the El

[[Page S14420]]

     Salvador courts of the executions of these four churchwomen 
     from the United States and were sentenced to 30 years in 
     prison, marking the first time in El Salvador history in 
     which a member of the Armed Forces of El Salvador was 
     convicted of murder by an El Salvador judge;
       Whereas the United Nations Commission on the Truth for El 
     Salvador was established under the terms of the historic 
     January 1992 Peace Accords that ended 12 years of civil war 
     in El Salvador and was charged to investigate and report to 
     the El Salvador people on human rights crimes committed by 
     all sides during the course of the civil war;
       Whereas in March 1993, the United Nations Commission on the 
     Truth for El Salvador found that the execution of these four 
     churchwomen from the United States was planned, that 
     Subsergeant Luis Antonio Colindres Aleman carried out orders 
     from a superior to execute them, that then Colonel Carlos 
     Eugenio Vides Casanova, then Director-General of the National 
     Guard and his cousin, Lieutenant Colonel Oscar Edgardo 
     Casanova Vejar, then Commander of the Zacatecoluca military 
     detachment where the murders were committed, and other 
     military personnel knew that members of the National Guard 
     had committed the murders pursuant to orders of a superior, 
     and that the subsequent coverup of the facts adversely 
     affected the judicial investigation into the murders of the 
     churchwomen;
       Whereas the United Nations Commission on the Truth for El 
     Salvador determined that General Jose Guillermo Garcia, then 
     Minister of Defense, made no serious effort to conduct a 
     thorough investigation of responsibility for the murders of 
     these four churchwomen from the United States;
       Whereas the families of these four churchwomen from the 
     United States continue their efforts to determine the full 
     truth surrounding the murders of their loved ones, appreciate 
     the cooperation of United States Government agencies in 
     disclosing and providing documents relevant to the murders of 
     the churchwomen, and pursue requests to release to the family 
     members the few remaining undisclosed documents and reports 
     pertaining to the case;
       Whereas the families of these four churchwomen from the 
     United States appreciate the ability of those harmed by 
     violence to bring suit against El Salvador military officers 
     in United States courts under the Torture Victim Protection 
     Act of 1991 (28 U.S.C. 1350 note);
       Whereas the lives of these four churchwomen from the United 
     States have, for the past 27 years, served as inspiration for 
     and continue to inspire Salvadorans, Americans, and people 
     throughout the world to answer the call to service and to 
     pursue lives dedicated to addressing the needs and 
     aspirations of the poor, the vulnerable, and the 
     disadvantaged, especially among women and children;
       Whereas the lives of these four churchwomen from the United 
     States have also inspired numerous books, plays, films, 
     music, religious events, and cultural events;
       Whereas schools, libraries, research centers, spiritual 
     centers, health clinics, women's and children's programs in 
     the United States and in El Salvador have been named after or 
     dedicated to Sisters Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, 
     and lay missionary Jean Donovan;
       Whereas the Maryknoll Sisters, headquartered in Ossining, 
     New York, the Ursuline Sisters, headquartered in Cleveland, 
     Ohio, numerous religious task forces in the United States, 
     and the Salvadoran and international religious communities 
     based in El Salvador annually commemorate the lives and 
     martyrdom of these four churchwomen from the United States;
       Whereas the historic January 1992 Peace Accords ended 12 
     years of civil war in El Salvador and have allowed the 
     Government and the people of El Salvador to achieve 
     significant progress in creating and strengthening 
     democratic, political, economic, and social institutions in 
     El Salvador; and
       Whereas December 2, 2007, marks the 27th anniversary of the 
     deaths of these four spiritual, courageous, and generous 
     churchwomen from the United States: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) remembers and commemorates the lives and work of 
     Sisters Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, and Dorothy Kazel and lay 
     missionary Jean Donovan;
       (2) extends sympathy and support for the families, friends, 
     and religious communities of these four churchwomen from the 
     United States;
       (3) continues to find inspiration in the lives and work of 
     these four churchwomen from the United States;
       (4) calls upon the people of the United States and 
     religious congregations to participate in local, national, 
     and international events commemorating the 27th anniversary 
     of the martyrdom of these four churchwomen from the United 
     States;
       (5) recognizes that while progress has been made in El 
     Salvador during the post-civil war period, the work begun by 
     these four churchwomen from the United States remains 
     unfinished and social and economic hardships persist among 
     many sectors of El Salvador society; and
       (6) calls upon the President, the Secretary of State, the 
     Administrator of the United States Agency for International 
     Development, and the heads of other United States Government 
     agencies to continue to support and collaborate with the 
     Government of El Salvador and with private sector, 
     nongovernmental, regional, international, and religious 
     organizations in their efforts to reduce poverty and hunger 
     and to promote educational opportunity, health care, and 
     social equity for the people of El Salvador.

                          ____________________