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The American Women Martyrs of El Salvador
On Dec. 2, 1980, four U.S. American women, Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clark, Ursuline Dorothy Kazel, and lay missionary Jean Donovan, were ambushed, raped and murdered by members of the Salvadoran National Guard while on their way from the airport. This year, the 25th anniversary of those terrible events, CMSM and LCWR are jointly sponsoring a delegation through the SHARE Foundation to El Salvador to celebrate the lives and significance of these four remarkable women. More information about their lives and the circumstances of their martyrdom can be found at www.rtfcam.org/martyrs/women/women.htm and fssca.net/martyrs/lives%20of%20four%20churchwomen.html.
Recently the Senate passed by a vote of 90-9 an amendment authored by Senator John McCain to the final version of the 2006 Defense Appropriations Bill prohibiting mistreatment of prisoners. The key provision of the amendment is as follows: "No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment." [the entire text of the amendment is available at www.phrusa.org/research/torture/mccain_text.html.]
The Bush Administration has been trying to have the amendment removed or changed to allow for exceptions for the CIA, even threatening to veto the bill. The American Catholic Bishops are on record against the use of torture as an affront to human dignity and gravely immoral. In a letter to the U. S. Senate, Bishop John H. Ricard, S.S.J., Chairman, Committee on International Policy of the USCCB, writes:
The United States has a long history of leadership and strong support for human rights around the world. Ratifications of the Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention Against Torture embody our nation’s commitment to establishing standards of conduct and prohibiting torture and other acts of inhumane treatment of persons in U.S. custody. Tragically, our nation’s record has been marred by reported instances of abusive treatment of enemy combatants held in military prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The lack of clarity regarding the procedures governing the treatment of prisoners makes it necessary to adopt more specific and stringent guidelines. The McCain-Warner amendments to the Defense Authorization Act would confirm our nation’s resolve to ensure that these serious abuses cease and never recur. www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/senateletterretorture100405.pdf
In spite of Administration opposition, there has been a strong movement in this country to reject the use of torture.
Sister Diana Ortiz, OSU, a survivor of torture in Guatemala in 1989, describes her experience in searing detail in her book The Blindfold’s Eye (Maryknoll, N.Y. : Orbis Books, 2002). In a recent letter, she wrote:
As a torture survivor, I find recent efforts to legalize torture shameful.
I know the depravity of torture from the inside out. In 1989 I was abducted in Guatemala and subjected to unspeakable horrors. When I returned to this country, I vowed to work for the abolition of torture throughout the world. Now, leaders of my government are trying to write it into law.
Currently, the President, the Vice President and nine U.S. Senators are trying to ensure that our government is free to torture. They are trying to defeat a Senate bill that bans our military from using torture. Although ninety senators rejected their efforts, these torture supporters are now working behind closed doors to prevent the anti-torture bill from becoming law and are suggesting that at the very least, the CIA should be exempt.
As Americans and as people of faith, we call on the Congress of the United States to stand firm and to reject unequivocally the use of torture by any American, at any time, anywhere, for any reason.
Help educate others about the shameful acts of those working to make torture legal. For more information about this campaign, visit www.stopthetorture.org.
Sincerely,
Sister Dianna Ortiz, OSU
The Catechism of the Catholic Church condemns torture as "contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity," and Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Council [#27] characterizes as criminal "all violations of the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, physical and mental torture, undue psychological pressures," including them in a list that also contains "all offenses against life itself, such as murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia and willful suicide." This is an issue that goes to the heart of our national character and our claim to be a moral people.
A powerful article by Gary Haugen titled "Silence on Suffering: Where are the voices from the Christian community on cruel and degrading treatment of detainees?" appeared in Christianity Today in October. It can be found at www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/142/12.0.html. More information on the issue can be found from Amnesty International at www.amnestyusa.org/stoptorture/campaign.html. Other sites are Sr. Ortiz’s Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC), and the Center for Victims of Torture.
Robert F. Kennedy’s 80th Birthday
A letter from Ethel Kennedy:
Dear Friends,
As November 20, Bobby’s birthday, approaches, we are grateful to those who share his belief in the power of our nation to change the world for the better. The images out of New Orleans, Mississippi, Baghdad and Afghanistan and the lack of images out of Africa clearly show us we have yet to live up to America’s full promise.
There could be no better tribute to Bobby than for friends and colleagues and all who found inspiration in his call to action, to become involved in helping the people living in the shadows he cared about.
On November 16, The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial will host a day of celebration featuring the 22nd presentation of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award to Stephen Bradberry, a champion of the working poor for over two decades. Stephen joins Human Rights Laureates from around the world and hundreds of RFK Fellows who have partnered with the Memorial to help realize their dream of a more just and gentle world.
Together we can effect the powerful change Bobby knew was possible when he offered a breath of hope to a country suffocating under the stranglehold of apartheid:
Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. [South Africa 1966]
Please join us in making more ripples.
More information is available at www.rfkmemorial.org/rfk80th/.
For the Peace of the World is a new resource available from the National Council of Churches. Here is an excerpt from the press release announcing its availability:
The 87-page book, edited by Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, Associate General Secretary of the NCC for International Affairs, examines the issue with in-depth essays and Bible studies, and includes prayers, litanies and other worship resources for use in congregational settings. The curriculum challenges Christians from all traditions to do what writer Dr. Peggy L. Shriver calls "soul-sized thinking about world affairs."
Among the questions that Christians need to ask, Shriver writes in the introduction, are these: "Does our strength reside chiefly in military power, economic power, cherished values, cultural expansion—or a mix, in what order? Is ‘peace with justice’ naive? A Cliche? An essential for survival?"
"This situation has caused Christian leaders ... to ask questions about where we are going as a nation," Kireopoulos says. "Have we allowed fear to manipulate us? What is the role of our country as a global citizen? What does our Christian faith teach us about individual and collective actions in the world?"
More information about the book is available at the NCC website.
This month, on Nov. 18-20, people from all over the country will gather at Fort Benning in Columbus, GA, to advocate the closing of the School of the Americas (recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) has introduced HR 1217, calling for the closing of the school. As of Sept. 30, there were 122 cosponsors in the House. Information is available at www.soaw.org/new/.
In conjunction with the SOA gathering, the Ignatian Solidarity Network is sponsoring the "Ignatian Family Teach-In" in Columbus. You can find out more about it at www.ignatiansolidarity.net/ under "Announcements."
T. Michael McNulty, SJ, editor
mmcnulty@cmsm.org
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