[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 174 (Wednesday, December 2, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H8867]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING AND HONORING THE 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MARTYRDOM OF SR. 
    DOROTHY KAZEL, JEAN DONOVAN, SR. ITA FORD, AND SR. MAURA CLARKE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Nebraska (Mr. Fortenberry) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. Mr. Speaker, with great solemnity and gratitude, 
today I wish to honor four grace-filled women. Each of them were called 
to live their faith in the nation that bears their Savior's name. Each 
worked tirelessly to bring hope, healing, and joy to the poor of El 
Salvador. Each were bound together in tragedy on December 2, 1980.
  Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, Ursuline Sister Dorothy 
Kazel, and a young woman named Jean Donovan each traveled different 
paths to El Salvador. In the words of Sister Dorothy, they were united 
by a powerful sense of responsibility to ``spread the Gospel to people 
who needed help.''
  They sought to bring peace and comfort to vulnerable persons caught 
in a maelstrom of political turmoil on the cusp of a brutal 12-year 
civil war that followed the 1980 murder of newly beatified Archbishop 
Oscar Romero, who was killed by an assassin's bullet as he said Mass.
  Mr. Speaker, Sister Dorothy and Jean had each joined a mission team 
from the diocese of Cleveland, Ohio. Together they worked to ferry food 
and medical supplies to the sick and wounded, in whom they saw the face 
of Christ.
  Sister Dorothy had been engaged, but postponed her marriage to test a 
call to religious life. Jean Donovan wanted to get closer to Christ in 
the poor, though her friends hoped that she would leave El Salvador.
  Reunited with her fiance briefly to attend a friend's wedding in 
Ireland, Jean actually chose to stay in El Salvador a little bit 
longer. She was drawn by the beauty and warmth of the Salvadoran 
people.
  Sister Ita and Sister Maura, both from New York and born nearly 10 
years apart, had each sought a life of service through the Maryknoll 
religious sisters. Their paths led through Chile and Nicaragua, 
respectively, and ultimately to El Salvador, where they each responded 
to Archbishop Romero's call, a plea for help.
  It has been said of Sister Ita that ``her twinkling eyes and her 
elfin grin would surface irrepressibly, even in the midst of poverty 
and sorrow.'' Sister Maura, for her part, ``was outstanding in her 
generosity, always saw the good in others, and could always make those 
whose lives she touched feel loved.''
  Mr. Speaker, all of these women could have left. Instead, they 
remained in El Salvador to be faithful. Sister Maura said, ``There is a 
real peace here in spite of many frustrations and the terror around us. 
God is very present in His seeming absence.''
  They gave all that they had to the poor and homeless, whose 
difficulties were compounded by the counterinsurgency that 
indiscriminately leveled many innocent lives in its crossfire.
  Mr. Speaker, while in college myself, pondering the essence and 
meaning of things, trying to figure out my own pathway, I heard the 
news of these women's deaths. The rape and murder of these selfless 
women greatly disturbed me. I remember going to Mass and, overcoming my 
own hesitancy, offered a prayer for them during the community's Prayer 
of the Faithful.
  The love that moved these four women to fly into the eye of the 
hurricane--because they could not bear to see vulnerable people suffer 
without recourse, without help--profoundly affected me and remains a 
part of my life today.
  As a Member of the United States House of Representatives, I am 
honored to laud the example of these exceptional heroines. Having met 
with members of El Salvador's congress, I have witnessed firsthand now 
the work of reconciliation that is going on, the healing of lives 
haunted by painful memories.
  When I first learned about the decades-long outpouring of love in 
service, vigils, prayers, and charitable programs that were inspired by 
the example of these courageous women, I felt moved to actually take 
some small part in these celebrations, thus this talk today.
  In recalling their noble sacrifice, it is my fervent hope that 
responsible nations throughout this hemisphere will see in the lives of 
these martyrs of El Salvador a path to genuine prosperity. We can honor 
them fittingly by embracing the truly needy with integrity, peace, and 
justice, in genuine mutual solidarity as they live their lives.

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