FRIENDS OF GOD, PROPHETS OF THE PEOPLE by Clara María Temporelli 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5 2. Mysticism, Prophecy, And Justice 2.1. … and the spring was glimpsed ..................................................................... 7 2.2. Martyrdom as a sign of love ........................................................................... 8 3. Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet: Committed to the Struggle for Human Rights 3.1. Caught in a world and a country in convulsion ........................................ 10 3.2. An existential itinerary of commitment and discipleship ...................... 11 3.3. Sharing the “passion” of Jesus, seeking God in the midst of pain and anguish .................................................................... 15 3.4. Disappearance, kidnapping, torture, and murder ..................................... 16 3.5. Two lives, two styles, one and the same Gospel ...................................... 17 4. Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Dorothy Kazel, And Jean Donovan: Women Of God, Incredibly Resistant 4.1. A long, bloody civil war (1980-92) .............................................................. 19 4.2. Extraordinary ordinary lives ........................................................................... 20 4.3. Prayer and discernment before the prospect of death ............................. 29 4.4. Women who gave their own lives ................................................................. 31 5. Strong Friends of God and the Poor ................................................................ 32 Notes .............................................................................................................................................. 33 Clara María Temporelli (Argentina), a religious sister of the Order of Maria Our Lady, is a professor of psychology with licentiate and doctorate degrees. She is currently giving classes in Mariology in the theology and philosophy faculty of the Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was Provincial Superior of Argentina and the Southern Cone (2006-11) and has been a member of the Theological Area of Cris- tianisme i Justícia study center. Her main activity has been accompanying and training people’s movements and base Christian communities. Among other publications she has authored María, mujer de Dios y de los pobres [Mary, Woman of God and of the Poor] (2008), “Amigas fuertes de Dios”, ¿amenaza? ¿para quiénes? [“Strong Women Friends of God: A Threat? For Whom?] (2014) and María a la luz de la fe del pueblo latinoamericano [Mary in Light of the Faith of the Latin American People] (2014). Publisher: CRISTIANISME I JUSTÍCIA - Roger de Llúria 13 - 08010 Barcelona +34 93 317 23 38 - [email protected] - www.cristianismeijusticia.net Printed by: Ediciones Rondas S.L. - Legal deposit: B 3798-2017 ISBN: 978-84-9730-389-7 - ISSN: 2014-6566 - ISSN (virtual edition): 2014-6574 Editor: Anna Pérez i Mir - Translated by Eric Southworth Cover drawing: Ignasi Flores - Layout: Pilar Rubio Tugas Printed on recycled paper - February 2017 Privacy Policy: The Fundació Lluís Espinal makes it known that your data are kept in a file under the name BDGACIJ, legal title of the Fundació Lluís Espinal. These are used only for providing the services we render you and for keeping you informed of our activities. You may exercise your rights of access, rectification, cancelation or disagreement by writing to the Fundació in Barcelona, c/Roger de Llúria, 13. 1. INTRODUCTION “Thought is born of events and of lived experience, and it should be kept closely linked to them since they are the only indicators of the right direction.”1 Hannah Arendt God continues to act, speak, and reveal himself in history in many ways, but he does so especially through his friends such as the martyrs Léonie Duquet, Alice Domon, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Dorothy Kazel, and Jean Donovan.2 These women will be contemplated from the per- spective of being “friends of God” because by their lives they have be- come prophets and ecclesial cornerstones; they beacons lighting our way and fountains that refresh and renew our strength as we struggle on behalf of the faith. From the very start I encourage read- managed to pose a grievous threat to ers not to remain indifferent to the facts the powerful of this world. These mar- presented on these pages but to realize tyrs, made doubly invisible as women that we all form part of a vital current, and as nuns, emerge from anonymity to one to which we are all heirs. Past and teach us that faith, confidence in God, present mingle together in a single and resistance are indispensable vir- flow so that, as the French historian tues in the pursuit of life. These women Marc Bloch puts it, “incomprehension are exemplars of sensitivity, courage, of the present is the deadly result of ig- and the refusal to yield before threats, norance of the past.”3 fear, and persecution. They displayed We present the lives of these six the gift of loving life and loving other faithful witnesses so that everyone will persons, especially the wretched of this “give them credit for the fruits of their world. They put us in touch also with efforts and praise them for their works other less positive experiences which in the city squares” (Prov 31,31), but are just as much a part of our world –the also so that we may understand how experiences of uncertainty, horror, and and why persons seemingly so fragile death that brought on their martyrdom. 5 Latin American and Caribbean Earth. The present system has come societies have been subjected to re- up against the limits imposed by na- pressive and authoritarian political ture. There is no solution that does not systems which have terrorized their require change; if we do not change, peoples and produced among them an we will destroy the planet. As long as attitude of “chronic fear.” Thousands economic interests continue to prevent upon thousands of persons have been the change that is needed, the present persecuted, deprived of freedom, tor- power structure will persist in its dev- tured, raped, murdered, or exiled. The astation both of persons and the Earth situation is made worse by the close itself. alliance of the military forces with Around the world, therefore, wom- economic power and the mass media. en committed to their beliefs and to the These secular powers have joined to- Earth are rising up to give irrefutable gether to lead globalization in the di- testimony, even at the cost of their rection that suits them. Added to this is lives. They are denouncing these po- the ecological question: the search for litical systems that deny people even alternative energy sources vs. main- their most basic human rights. taining the prevailing system. May these pages serve as a remind- We have to seek an alternative: er and an acclamation of these women another way of producing and con- who have given a testimony both val- suming, another way of treating the iant and valuable. 6 2. MYSTICISM, PROPHECY, AND JUSTICE “For you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its rays.” (Malachy 4,2) Their experience of the consecrated life is the deep well from which the martyrs drank. Their social, historical, and spiritual context inspired them in their processes of insertion and inculturation, and it led them to commit themselves to the suffering and impoverished people with whom they lived, and to defend them to the death. 2.1. … and the spring was There was hope. The men and glimpsed women of God walked alongside the poor in the search for justice. Immers- With the Second Vatican Council and ing themselves in the culture of their the conferences of Medellín and Pueb- time, they did not condemn it but tried la,4 the Church in Latin America and to be considerate, compassionate, and the Caribbean had a glimpse of spring. courageous with one and all. John As the Church felt the gentle breeze XXXIII and Paul VI opened the hearts blowing, breathed in the perfume of of Catholics to the world, to other the orange blossoms, and beheld the Christian churches, to other religions, blossoming almond trees, she began to to all nations and races. They let loose let herself be guided by the Spirit that forces that nothing and nobody could dwells in all creation. Leading her by stop: liberation theology, the Latin the hand along paths of humanization, American Conference of Religious, the Spirit announced to her a dawn at the Christian base communities –all of midnight. As in the ancient prophecies, these embodied new options, displace- the splendor of life shone brightly in ments, insertions, methodologies, and the faces of humanity. critical analyses. People began to dis- 7 cover and admire the diverse cultures Before Vatican II, theologians held that give our world its richness. There that the main motive and the necessary arose a new spirituality, a new way of condition for martyrdom was odium following Jesus, a new understanding fidei [hatred of the faith], but our the- of his project and his cause. We could ological understanding of martyrdom see the Kingdom becoming visible in was broadened by the Council. The our history through dynamic re-organ- text of Lumen Gentium (42) does not ization of personal relations and social speak of profession of faith or odium structures. Solidarity incarnate became fidei, although it presupposes them. the byword of the Council. It prefers to speak of martyrdom as a In