{"id":54,"date":"2015-06-14T00:17:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-14T00:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html"},"modified":"2016-03-25T17:25:01","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T22:25:01","slug":"four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html","title":{"rendered":"Four American women killed in El Salvador"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0Due to their work with the poor and forgotten members of society, the National Guard had placed these women under surveillance.<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0The men were not in uniform, and an order to execute these women had come from above. \u00a0That same night, peasants down a desolate road reported hearing machine gun fire and saw a van speeding away from the place. \u00a0When they approached, the villagers found the bodies of four women who had been raped and shot. \u00a0The 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.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
On the right, blocks mark the tomb where the women were buried<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Desolate road where the women were raped and murdered<\/div>\n

The priest, Father Paul Schindler, had been anxiously waiting for Jean and Sister Dorothy the morning of December 3rd. \u00a0Both women worked directly with him at the parish in the coastal city of La Libertad. \u00a0He assumed they had been delayed and spent the night with the Maryknoll Sisters. \u00a0After 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. \u00a0Father Schindler identified the bodies of the four American women.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Father Schindler (in red) celebrates Mass two years ago at the chapel built where the four women were found<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Father Tom Peyton and me after celebrating Mass with Father Schindler at the site where the four American church women were executed<\/div>\n

Months later, Ambassador White<\/a> was dismissed by the State Department from his post after he refused the order to cover up the Salvadoran military\u2019s responsibility for the murder of these four women. \u00a0He was not only dismissed as ambassador, but this marked the end of his diplomatic career. \u00a0The murder of these four women put into question the unrestricted support of the Salvadoran government by the United States. \u00a0Though questioned, the support continued for many more years. \u00a0In 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.<\/p>\n

Today, a small and humble chapel stands where the four women were brutally murdered. \u00a0A desolate, dirt road still leads to the site where the heinous act took place. \u00a0How could this happen? \u00a0Maria Luisa d\u2019Aubuisson 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\u2019s beatification last month.<\/p>\n

When speaking of her brother Roberto d\u2019Aubuisson, she states that, \u201cfor them [the military], communism was social work in communities, the promotion of base organizations to improve neighborhoods, cooperatives\u2026 social advancement. \u00a0All this was suspicious, it was dangerous and monitored. \u00a0Archbishop Romero, the six priests killed while he was archbishop, the four Maryknoll religious [her mistake, only two were Maryknoll<\/i>], 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. \u00a0These people had to be monitored and \u2018cleansed.'\u201d \u00a0Watch the whole interview in Spanish here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for these women, their ministry came to an early end, but their courageous Christian witness will endure. \u00a0They may not have been declared martyrs as Archbishop Romero was recently, but these four women certainly are martyrs of the faith.<\/p>\n

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them. \u00a0May they rest in peace. \u00a0Amen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Preparing for Mass at the chapel in 2013<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Parish in La Libertad where Jean Donovan and Sister Dorothy Kazel worked. \u00a0Father Schindler, a priest from Cleveland, is still the pastor.<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
At the local parish, dedication plaque of a cross to Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan who \u201cgave up their lives in the service of their brothers of the Church in El Salvador.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Pictures are mine, all rights reserved.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2533,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFour American women killed in El Salvador<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"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\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Four American women killed in El Salvador\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Labyrinthine Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-14T00:17:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-03-25T22:25:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/files\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-IZQx1EdCSy8\/VXzyog0fAMI\/AAAAAAAAEAk\/-XKaDrd-zCE\/s320\/DSC05289.JPG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Father Pablo Migone\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Father Pablo Migone\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html\",\"name\":\"Four American women killed in El Salvador\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-14T00:17:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-25T22:25:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#\/schema\/person\/35ce8464416a4368561caf8ed8c2ba1b\"},\"description\":\"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\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Four American women killed in El Salvador\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/\",\"name\":\"Labyrinthine Mind\",\"description\":\"Seeking God in the labyrinth\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#\/schema\/person\/35ce8464416a4368561caf8ed8c2ba1b\",\"name\":\"Father Pablo Migone\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/305296c2dd82f71369f8808eb07ace26?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/305296c2dd82f71369f8808eb07ace26?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Father Pablo Migone\"},\"description\":\"Born in Lima, Peru and raised in Augusta, Georgia, Father Pablo Migone was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 2009 after studying at the Pontifical North American College and earning a Masters in Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy. He currently serves as Vicar for Mission Advancement of the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia and Pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and Corpus Christi Parish in the Savannah, Georgia area. The views expressed in this blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of his bishop or the Diocese of Savannah.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/author\/pmigone\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Four American women killed in El Salvador","description":"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","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Four American women killed in El Salvador","og_description":"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","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html","og_site_name":"Labyrinthine Mind","article_published_time":"2015-06-14T00:17:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-03-25T22:25:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/files\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-IZQx1EdCSy8\/VXzyog0fAMI\/AAAAAAAAEAk\/-XKaDrd-zCE\/s320\/DSC05289.JPG"}],"author":"Father Pablo Migone","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Father Pablo Migone","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html","name":"Four American women killed in El Salvador","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-06-14T00:17:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-03-25T22:25:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#\/schema\/person\/35ce8464416a4368561caf8ed8c2ba1b"},"description":"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","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2015\/06\/four-american-women-killed-in-el-salvador.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Four American women killed in El Salvador"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/","name":"Labyrinthine Mind","description":"Seeking God in the labyrinth","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#\/schema\/person\/35ce8464416a4368561caf8ed8c2ba1b","name":"Father Pablo Migone","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/305296c2dd82f71369f8808eb07ace26?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/305296c2dd82f71369f8808eb07ace26?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Father Pablo Migone"},"description":"Born in Lima, Peru and raised in Augusta, Georgia, Father Pablo Migone was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 2009 after studying at the Pontifical North American College and earning a Masters in Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy. He currently serves as Vicar for Mission Advancement of the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia and Pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and Corpus Christi Parish in the Savannah, Georgia area. The views expressed in this blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of his bishop or the Diocese of Savannah.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/author\/pmigone"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2533"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}