U.S. bishops back resolution that honors nun murdered in Brazil

The chairman of the bishops’ International Policy Committee has commended a congressional resolution honoring the work of American Sr. Dorothy Stang among the poor farmers of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. Sr. Stang was assassinated Feb. 12.

In a letter to U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), Bishop John H. Ricard, SSJ, of Pensacola-Tallahassee said Sr. Stang was assassinated because of her “advocacy for the poor.”

Bishop Ricard wished Ryan success in gathering a large number of co-sponsors for H.Con.Res. 89. The resolution as introduced March 9; it currently has 24 co-sponsors.

The resolution notes that Sr. Stang “lived her life according to the mission of the Sisters of Notre Dame [de Namur]: making known God's goodness and love of the poor through a Gospel way of life, community, and prayer, while continuing a strong educational tradition and taking a stand with the poor people especially women and children, in the most abandoned places, and committing her one and only life to work with others to create justice and peace for all.”

A native of Dayton, Ohio, Sr. Stang entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1948, professing her final vows in 1956. She taught elementary school, spending 13 years at Holy Trinity School in Phoenix, before moving to Brazil in 1966. The 73-year-old sister was gunned down in Brazil after nearly 40 years of ministering to the country’s poor.

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