On December 2, 1980 Sister Dorothy Kazel was raped and murdered in El Salvador. She was working among the poor people there as a missionary for the Cleveland Diocese. The men who killed her were extremist guerillas.

She was a pretty Cleveland nun who taught at my high school, Ursuline Academy. She was also my home room teacher in my sophmore year. She had a sweet smile and always called me Rosie.

I'm thinking about her today because of a story about her on the front page of the Plain Dealer.

I'm proud to say she is deservedly being considered for sainthood. She said she didn't want to be an ordinary sister: she wanted to "be extra-ordinary - be perfect by following God's will to a T."

[ November 25, 2005, 01:54 PM: Message edited by: ladybug ]

Ladybug... if memory serves me correctly there were many of the poorest of the poor in el salvador murdered by legalized secret death squads at that time. Accused of being 'communists'.

They, with nuns and priests who believed in a 'liberation theology', were trying to to fight a brutal and corrupt regime, a regime which had a million dollars a day a one point, being funnelled into it by a foreign nation. There was a group of about 5 nuns all murdered at the same time, was she among them?

A member of a military death squad sought refugee claimant here. According to the CBC docomentary he had joined the military with the best of intentions, but when he was put into the death squad, he was horrified at what he found out, but trying to escape it, meant he too would be eliminated.

Yes, Sister Dorothy Kazel was one of them.

The men who did it were found and if memory serves me correctly one of them is living in freedom right here in America!!!!

Their trial was a sham and most of them got off. I'd really need to go back to the actual news articles though to be sure of what the judge had decided for them. All of their families were outraged at the verdicts. Dorothy's parents died broken-hearted. I remember her father's heart-breaking question, "what did my little girl ever do to them?"

She was not a communist, she just worked among the poor and sincerely believed that was her calling. She came home in the summer before her death and was worried she was going to have to give up her post there soon. She pleaded with the Cleveland Diocese to let her stay and they granted her request. A few months later while driving to the airport to pick up another person her mini bus was stopped and her and the other women were raped and murdered. The guerillas burned the mini bus. They were found two days later buried in shallow graves by the side of the road. A farmer had reported the buried bodies. This was a common occurence there and it happened to anybody.

[ November 25, 2005, 04:12 PM: Message edited by: ladybug ]

Bug.. i am not surprised if most of the so called 'guerillas' got off. When Romero was murdered, who had the most to gain by his death?
Who had the most to lose if what he and others were advocating came into effect? It's hard to believe these 'guerillas' were not part of secret state sponsored death squads, used to maintain the ruling elite and terrorize the people.

Again, if memory serves me correct, one of the men responsible for the killings claimed they were told to do it by high ranking officials and really didn't want to. I think nobody is ever going to know the truth in this case. I was really surprised that they found out who did it at all.

God bless America and Canada for our being able to live free and not be afraid of guerilla's or death squads. I can't even imagine what such fear must be like...

Yes Chatty, I'm glad that we have neighbors who have never given us any reason to fear them. Think of what it would be like to live bordering a country hostile to ours and creating misery through that hostility.

Thank God for our Canadian neighbors who are peace-loving people and very much just like us.

Now we can lighten up for a moment , so i must say Bug, that is a nice compliment, but if truth be told.....a)most of us cant stand pain, so if there's a way to solve differences without fighting, we're all for it.
............b)marijuana use is quite prevelant here, it seems to lower agression.
...........,c)alot of snow around at times,
which makes staying home and watching tv,
not a bad idea.
Your right, we aren't a threat.

[ November 25, 2005, 11:44 PM: Message edited by: norma ]

See, as I said, Canadians are a lot like us!

Thanks for being a good neighbor Norma.

"On December 2, 1980 Sister Dorothy Kazel was raped and murdered in El Salvador." I remember that event.

1980 was a horrid year for my family too. That's when my brother took his hunting rifle and shot and killed 4 of his neighbors. I know I've mentioned this in other segments of this forum, but when I read this, I thought of my brother's horrifying actions and where that left my family. After that I did not feel safe. And although he was not part of an official death squad, he took it on himself to execute some good people he thought were bad. If my brother had been smoking marijuana instead of taking prescription drugs - valium, stelazine, thorazine and librium, he would have been too mellow to kill anyone. I agree with you, Norma.

The only way I found that I could feel safe anywhere at anytime was to work on myself, to learn to grow, to become and to reach up and learn the meaning of kindness.