February 15

A Radical Faith: The Assassination of Sister Maura
by Eileen Markey

Yesterday a troubled young man shot and killed at least 17 people, most of them students at a Florida high school.  How many students, churchgoers, and concert attendees will have to die before our country finally bans assault weapons?  I just sent messages to my US congressman and 2 state senators; I hope and pray our voices will be heard.

While the number of mass shootings in our country keeps escalating, shooting is nothing new.  Almost 40 years ago, three American nuns and a lay worker were martyred in a mass murder in El Salvador.  

Although this book could have used some more editing, A Radical Faith is a fascinating story of a young nun who is called to serve the needy populations of Nicaragua and El Salvador and who ends up making the ultimate sacrifice.  Maura is born just before World War 2 in Rockaway, Queens in an Irish Catholic neighborhood, taking her vows as a Maryknoll sister in 1955.  The two most interesting takeaways from this biography, for me, were:

1) the transformation of the religious life as a result of Vatican II.  Women like Maura expected a life of prayer and quiet but, in many cases, they ended up among the people rather than cloistered inside a convent.  "Was a religious life about commitment and interiority, a personal relationship with God, and a quest for holiness?  Or was it about the relationships between people and building the kingdom of God, the society of love and justice Jesus called for?" (p 151)

2) the uprisings in centralAmerica were by poor people victimized by cruel and selfish governments.  In both Nicaragua and El Salvador, rich officials took away the land of the poor, charged them exorbitant prices for water, and classified them as communists if they tried to work together to help one another.  When they were forced to resort to militant action, the governments sought US aid to squelch the "communist" rebels.  The US government complied with training, weapons, and money.  The treacherous governments killed, tortured, and raped these poor campesinos, who only wanted food and housing for their families, and it was US-trained soldiers who raped and killed Maura and her colleagues in 1980.

This thoughtful story is well-documented by letters, interviews, and news articles.