[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 23] [Senate] [Pages 31395-31397] [From the U.S. 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 4 American women who continue to be a source of great inspiration. Mr. President, on December 2, 1980, 2 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 4 American women, several 25th anniversary events were held in the United States including 1 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 4 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 [[Page 31396]] 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 4 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, 4 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 4 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 4 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, 5 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 Salvador courts of the executions of these 4 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 4 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 4 churchwomen from the United States; Whereas the families of these 4 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 4 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 4 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 4 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 4 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 4 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 [[Page 31397]] 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 4 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. ____________________