Protesting at the fort

National Catholic Reporter, Dec 8, 2000 by Pat Marrin

The hopes expressed in many places bound together by the common goal of closing the School of the Americas were also conveyed to a silent crowd just before the solemn funeral procession made its way onto Fort Benning. Sr. Diane Pinchot spoke about her Ursuline sister, Dorothy Kazel, one of the four churchwomen killed at the hands of the Salvadoran national guard soldiers in 1980. The killings sparked outrage and shock that continues to touch people two decades later.

"Dorothy's death pierced my heart, and pierced the heart of my community," Pinchot said. "Her death made us vulnerable to the fate of so many of our sisters and brothers in Latin America. She would be here today asking the same unanswered questions that are her legacy."

Kazel wrote a letter two months before her death to then President Carter, describing a brutal massacre she had witnessed in one of the villages where she worked.

"What I find most appalling," Pinchot told the crowd, "is that I am a North American, and 20 years later the violence against the poor continues, in Chiapas and in Colombia. How do we reconcile all this? We are challenged by the poor of Latin America, who say to us, `Our voices are helpless. Your voices are so strong.' We best remember Dorothy and the others by taking these words to heart," Pinchot said.

Pat Marrin's e-mail address is patmarrin@aol.com