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Four American women killed in El Salvador

Four American women killed in El Salvador

Last updated on: March 25, 2016 at 5:25 pm by Father Pablo Migone

Four American women killed in El Salvador 2016-03-25T17:25:01-05:00 Father Pablo Migone

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On December 2nd, 1980, only a few months after the murder of Archbishop Romero, four American women were raped and murdered by members of the National Guard of El Salvador.

Jean Donovan, a lay missionary from the Diocese of Cleveland, and Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel picked up from the airport two Maryknoll religious, Sister Maura Clarke and Sister Ita Ford, who were arriving from a conference in Nicaragua. Due to their work with the poor and forgotten members of society, the National Guard had placed these women under surveillance.

Five members of the National Guard who had been watching the women at the airport stopped their van soon after the women left the airport. The men were not in uniform, and an order to execute these women had come from above. That same night, peasants down a desolate road reported hearing machine gun fire and saw a van speeding away from the place. When they approached, the villagers found the bodies of four women who had been raped and shot. The following morning, local authorities had the women buried in a common grave and the local parish priest who lived in a nearby city was notified.

On the right, blocks mark the tomb where the women were buried

Desolate road where the women were raped and murdered

The priest, Father Paul Schindler, had been anxiously waiting for Jean and Sister Dorothy the morning of December 3rd. Both women worked directly with him at the parish in the coastal city of La Libertad. He assumed they had been delayed and spent the night with the Maryknoll Sisters. After hearing about the four executed women, Father Schindler immediately notified the U.S. Ambassador Robert White, who along with the priest, traveled to the desolate road where the women had been buried. Father Schindler identified the bodies of the four American women.

Father Schindler (in red) celebrates Mass two years ago at the chapel built where the four women were found

Father Tom Peyton and me after celebrating Mass with Father Schindler at the site where the four American church women were executed

Months later, Ambassador White was dismissed by the State Department from his post after he refused the order to cover up the Salvadoran military’s responsibility for the murder of these four women. He was not only dismissed as ambassador, but this marked the end of his diplomatic career. The murder of these four women put into question the unrestricted support of the Salvadoran government by the United States. Though questioned, the support continued for many more years. In a desperate attempt to make sense of the killings in 1981, the U.S. Secretary of State ridiculously suggested that the women may have been shot because they had run a military roadblock.

Today, a small and humble chapel stands where the four women were brutally murdered. A desolate, dirt road still leads to the site where the heinous act took place. How could this happen? Maria Luisa d’Aubuisson de Martinez, the sister of the man who ordered the execution of Archbishop Romero, provides some insight in a recent interview conducted days before Romero’s beatification last month.

When speaking of her brother Roberto d’Aubuisson, she states that, “for them [the military], communism was social work in communities, the promotion of base organizations to improve neighborhoods, cooperatives… social advancement. All this was suspicious, it was dangerous and monitored. Archbishop Romero, the six priests killed while he was archbishop, the four Maryknoll religious [her mistake, only two were Maryknoll], the six Jesuits, two hundred catechists, thousands of thousands of the disappeared, all these people fell into this [category] that they were dangerous, too close to the people who may be subversive, who may organize. These people had to be monitored and ‘cleansed.'” Watch the whole interview in Spanish here.

Unfortunately for these women, their ministry came to an early end, but their courageous Christian witness will endure. They may not have been declared martyrs as Archbishop Romero was recently, but these four women certainly are martyrs of the faith.

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

Preparing for Mass at the chapel in 2013

Parish in La Libertad where Jean Donovan and Sister Dorothy Kazel worked. Father Schindler, a priest from Cleveland, is still the pastor.

At the local parish, dedication plaque of a cross to Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan who “gave up their lives in the service of their brothers of the Church in El Salvador.”

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