In a letter to Brazil’s ambassador to the United States, the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ International Policy Committee expressed “deep concern and revulsion” at the murder of missionary Sister Dorothy Stang.
Bishop John Ricard, of Pensacola-Tallahassee, said he was encouraged by reports that Brazilian officials “will push hard for justice in the case,” and asked the ambassador to communicate the U.S. bishops’ concerns to his government.
Ohio-born Sister Stang, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, was shot several times Feb. 12 while traveling to meet officials from the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform.
Bishop Ricard said she had worked for more than two decades on behalf of poor farmers in Brazil’s Pará state, and had received death threats since 1999.
In a separate letter of condolence to leaders of Sister Stang’s religious community, Bishop Ricard said her death was “reminiscent of the 1988 murder of Chico Mendes which caused an international outcry against the Amazon-area land speculators of that time.
“We can hope that Sister Dorothy’s sacrifice will lead to greater justice for the poor landless workers with whom she worked tirelessly and for whom finally she laid down her life.”
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