Maura Clarke
Encyclopedia
Sister Maura Clarke, M.M., (January 13, 1931 – December 2, 1980) was an American
Roman Catholic Maryknoll
Sister, who served as a missionary
in Nicaragua
and El Salvador
. She worked with the poor and refugees in Central America
from 1959 until her death
in 1980. She was beaten, raped, and murdered, along with fellow missionaries Ita Ford
M.M., Jean Donovan
and Dorothy Kazel
, O.S.U., in El Salvador
, by members of a military
death squad
of the military-led right-wing government fighting the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
at the time of the Salvadoran Civil War.
On the afternoon of December 2, 1980, Jean Donovan
and Sister Dorothy Kazel
, an Ursuline
nun, picked up two Maryknoll Missionary Sisters from the airport after the pair arrived from attending a Maryknoll
conference in Managua, Nicaragua. The women were under surveillance by a Salvadoran National Guardsman (La Guardia Nacionál) at the time, who phoned his commander for orders.
Acting on orders from their commander, five National Guardsmen changed into plainclothes and continued to stake out the airport. Donovan and Kazel returned to pick up a second pair of Maryknoll Sisters: Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, who were returning from the same conference, on a flight not due until 9:11 pm.
The five National Guardsmen, now out of uniform, stopped the women's vehicle after they left the airport in San Salvador
. Clarke and the three other women were taken to a relatively isolated spot, where the soldiers beat, raped, and murdered them.
At about 2200, three hours after Donovan and Kazel had picked up Clarke and Ford, local peasants saw the Sisters' white van drive to an isolated spot and then heard machine-gun fire followed by single shots. They saw five men flee the scene in the white van, with the lights on and the radio blaring. The van would be found later than night, set afire at the side of the airport road.
Early the next morning (3 December 1980) the bodies of the four women were found by local residents, who were told by local authorities; a judge, three members of the civil guard, and two commanders; to bury the women in a common grave in a nearby field. Four of the local men did so, but informed their parish priest, and the news reached the local [bishop]] and the U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, Robert White, the same day.
The shallow grave was exhumed the next day (4 December 1980) in front of fifteen reporters, Sisters Alexander and Dorsey, several missioners, and Ambassador White. Jean Donovan's body was the first removed; then Dorothy Kazel's; then Maura Clarke's; and last, Ita Ford. The next day, a Mass of the Resurrection was said by Bishop Arturo Rivera y Damas
; and on Saturday, December 6, the bodies of Donovan and Kazel were flown to the United States for burial. In keeping with the tradition of the Maryknoll Missionaries, the bodies of the Maryknoll Sisters, Clarke and Ford, were buried locally, in Chalatenango, El Salvador.
was appointed by the United Nations
to investigate who had given the orders, who had known about the crime, and who had covered it up. Several lower-level National Guardsman were convicted, and two National Guard generals were sued by the women's families in the federal civil courts of the United States for their command responsibility in the incident. After the murders of the churchwomen, U.S. President Jimmy Carter
suspended all aid to El Salvador, but domestic U.S. right-wing political pressure forced him to reinstate it.
Unlike President Carter, succeeding U.S. President Ronald Reagan
favored the Salvadoran military regime; he authorized increased military aid and sent more U.S. military advisers to the country to aid the government in quelling the civil/guerrilla war. In El Salvador's Decade of Terror: Human Rights Since the Assassination of Archbishop Romero, Human Rights Watch
reports:
According to the Maryknoll Society:
The head of the National Guard, whose troops were responsible for the murders, General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova
, went on to become Salvadoran Minister of Defense in the government of José Napoleón Duarte
. After their emigration to the U.S. state of Florida, Vides Casanova and his fellow general, José Guillermo García
, were sued by the families of the four women in federal civil court.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Roman Catholic Maryknoll
Maryknoll
Maryknoll is a name shared by three organizations that are part of the Roman Catholic Church and whose joint focus is on the overseas mission activity of the Catholic Church in the United States...
Sister, who served as a missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
in Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
and El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
. She worked with the poor and refugees in Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
from 1959 until her death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
in 1980. She was beaten, raped, and murdered, along with fellow missionaries Ita Ford
Ita Ford
Ita Ford, M.M. was a Roman Catholic Maryknoll Sister missionary to Bolivia, Chile and El Salvador. She worked with the poor and war refugees. On December 2, 1980, she was tortured, raped, and murdered, along with fellow missionaries Maura Clarke, M.M., laywoman Jean Donovan, and Dorothy Kazel,...
M.M., Jean Donovan
Jean Donovan
Jean Donovan was an American lay missionary who was murdered with three nuns in El Salvador by a military death squad while volunteering to do charity work during the civil war there.-Life:...
and Dorothy Kazel
Dorothy Kazel
Dorothy Kazel was an American Ursuline nun and missionary to El Salvador. On December 2, 1980, she and fellow missionaries Ita Ford, Jean Donovan and Maura Clarke were raped and murdered by members of the military of El Salvador.-Life and work:Kazel was born Dorthea Lu Kazel to Lithuanian American...
, O.S.U., in El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, by members of a military
Military of El Salvador
The Armed Forces of El Salvador, in Spanish Fuerza Armada de El Salvador is the official name of the combined armed forces of El Salvador...
death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
of the military-led right-wing government fighting the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front is, since 1992, a left-wing political party in El Salvador and formerly a coalition of five revolutionary guerrilla organizations...
at the time of the Salvadoran Civil War.
Murder
In their deaths, Sister Maura Clarke and the three other Catholic missionaries joined the more-than 75,000 people who were killed in that nation's civil war.On the afternoon of December 2, 1980, Jean Donovan
Jean Donovan
Jean Donovan was an American lay missionary who was murdered with three nuns in El Salvador by a military death squad while volunteering to do charity work during the civil war there.-Life:...
and Sister Dorothy Kazel
Dorothy Kazel
Dorothy Kazel was an American Ursuline nun and missionary to El Salvador. On December 2, 1980, she and fellow missionaries Ita Ford, Jean Donovan and Maura Clarke were raped and murdered by members of the military of El Salvador.-Life and work:Kazel was born Dorthea Lu Kazel to Lithuanian American...
, an Ursuline
Ursulines
The Ursulines are a Roman Catholic religious order for women founded at Brescia, Italy, by Saint Angela de Merici in November 1535, primarily for the education of girls and the care of the sick and needy. Their patron saint is Saint Ursula.-History:St Angela de Merici spent 17 years leading a...
nun, picked up two Maryknoll Missionary Sisters from the airport after the pair arrived from attending a Maryknoll
Maryknoll
Maryknoll is a name shared by three organizations that are part of the Roman Catholic Church and whose joint focus is on the overseas mission activity of the Catholic Church in the United States...
conference in Managua, Nicaragua. The women were under surveillance by a Salvadoran National Guardsman (La Guardia Nacionál) at the time, who phoned his commander for orders.
Acting on orders from their commander, five National Guardsmen changed into plainclothes and continued to stake out the airport. Donovan and Kazel returned to pick up a second pair of Maryknoll Sisters: Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, who were returning from the same conference, on a flight not due until 9:11 pm.
The five National Guardsmen, now out of uniform, stopped the women's vehicle after they left the airport in San Salvador
San Salvador
The city of San Salvador the capital and largest city of El Salvador, which has been designated a Gamma World City. Its complete name is La Ciudad de Gran San Salvador...
. Clarke and the three other women were taken to a relatively isolated spot, where the soldiers beat, raped, and murdered them.
At about 2200, three hours after Donovan and Kazel had picked up Clarke and Ford, local peasants saw the Sisters' white van drive to an isolated spot and then heard machine-gun fire followed by single shots. They saw five men flee the scene in the white van, with the lights on and the radio blaring. The van would be found later than night, set afire at the side of the airport road.
Early the next morning (3 December 1980) the bodies of the four women were found by local residents, who were told by local authorities; a judge, three members of the civil guard, and two commanders; to bury the women in a common grave in a nearby field. Four of the local men did so, but informed their parish priest, and the news reached the local [bishop]] and the U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, Robert White, the same day.
The shallow grave was exhumed the next day (4 December 1980) in front of fifteen reporters, Sisters Alexander and Dorsey, several missioners, and Ambassador White. Jean Donovan's body was the first removed; then Dorothy Kazel's; then Maura Clarke's; and last, Ita Ford. The next day, a Mass of the Resurrection was said by Bishop Arturo Rivera y Damas
Arturo Rivera y Damas
Arturo Rivera y Damas was the ninth Bishop and fifth Archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador. Msgr. Rivera's term as archbishop coincided with the Salvadoran Civil War. He was the immediate successor of Archbishop Óscar Romero. During Romero's archbishopric , Rivera was Romero's key ally...
; and on Saturday, December 6, the bodies of Donovan and Kazel were flown to the United States for burial. In keeping with the tradition of the Maryknoll Missionaries, the bodies of the Maryknoll Sisters, Clarke and Ford, were buried locally, in Chalatenango, El Salvador.
Subsequent history
As news of the murders was made public in the United States, public outrage forced the U.S. government to pressure the Salvadoran regime to investigate. The earliest investigations were condemned as whitewash attempts by the later ones, and in time, a Truth CommissionCommission on the Truth for El Salvador
The Truth Commission for El Salvador was a truth commission established by the United Nations to investigate and report on human rights abuses during the civil war in El Salvador ....
was appointed by the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
to investigate who had given the orders, who had known about the crime, and who had covered it up. Several lower-level National Guardsman were convicted, and two National Guard generals were sued by the women's families in the federal civil courts of the United States for their command responsibility in the incident. After the murders of the churchwomen, U.S. President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
suspended all aid to El Salvador, but domestic U.S. right-wing political pressure forced him to reinstate it.
Unlike President Carter, succeeding U.S. President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
favored the Salvadoran military regime; he authorized increased military aid and sent more U.S. military advisers to the country to aid the government in quelling the civil/guerrilla war. In El Salvador's Decade of Terror: Human Rights Since the Assassination of Archbishop Romero, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
reports:
- "During the Reagan years in particular, not only did the United States fail to press for improvements … but, in an effort to maintain backing for U.S. policy, it misrepresented the record of the Salvadoran government, and smeared critics who challenged that record. In so doing, the Administration needlessly polarized the debate in the United States, and did a grave injustice to the thousands of civilian victims of government terror in El Salvador. [23] Despite the El Mozote MassacreEl Mozote massacreThe El Mozote Massacre took place in and around the village of El Mozote, in Morazán department, El Salvador, on December 11, 1981, when Salvadoran armed forces trained by the United States military killed at least 200 and up to 1000 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran...
that year, Reagan continued certifying (per the 1974 amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act) that the Salvadoran government was progressing in respecting and guaranteeing the human rights of its people, and in reducing National Guard abuses against them."
According to the Maryknoll Society:
“The U.N.-sponsored report of the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador concluded that the abductions were planned in advance and the men responsible had carried out the murders on orders from above. It further stated that the head of the National Guard and two officers assigned to investigate the case had concealed the facts to harm the judicial process. The murder of the women, along with attempts by the Salvadoran military and some American officials to cover it up, generated a grass-roots opposition in the U.S., as well as ignited intense debate over the Administration’s policy in El Salvador.
In 1984, the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The Truth Commission noted that this was the first time in Salvadoran history that a judge had found a member of the military guilty of assassination. In 1998, three of the soldiers were released for good behavior. Two of the men remain in prison and have petitioned the Salvadoran government for pardons.”
The head of the National Guard, whose troops were responsible for the murders, General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova
Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova
Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova was head of the Salvadoran national guard and later defense minister. He was sued in the federal civil court of Miami, Florida in the United States in two precedent-setting cases. The cases are referred to by the surname of his co-defendant, José Guillermo García:*...
, went on to become Salvadoran Minister of Defense in the government of José Napoleón Duarte
José Napoleón Duarte
José Napoleón Duarte Fuentes was a Salvadoran political figure who, from March 3, 1980, to 1982, led the civil-military Revolutionary Government Junta that took power in a 1979 coup d'état...
. After their emigration to the U.S. state of Florida, Vides Casanova and his fellow general, José Guillermo García
José Guillermo García
José Guillermo García is former general of the military of El Salvador and was minister of defense during the Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador. He emigrated to the United States in 1989. He was sued, along with Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, in the United States district court in...
, were sued by the families of the four women in federal civil court.
Clarke's Quotations
- "God is very present in His seeming absence."
- "My fear of death is being challenged constantly as children, lovely young girls, old people are being shot and some cut up with machetes and bodies thrown by the road and people prohibited from burying them. A loving Father must have a new life of unimaginable joy and peace prepared for these precious unknown, uncelebrated martyrs."
- "I see in this work a channel for awakening real concern for the victims of injustice in today’s world; a means to work for change, and to share…deep concern for the sufferings of the poor and marginalized, the non-persons of our human family."
- "If we leave the people when they suffer the cross, how credible is our word to them? The church's role is to accompany those who suffer the most, and to witness our hope in the resurrection."
Further reading
- “Hearts on Fire: The Story of the Maryknoll Sisters,” Penny Lernoux, et al., Orbis Books, 1995.
- “Ita Ford: Missionary Martyr,” Phyllis Zagano, Paulist Press, 1996.
- “The Same Fate As the Poor,” Judith M. Noone, Orbis Books, 1995. ISBN 1570750319
- “Witness of Hope: The Persecution of Christians in Latin America,” Martin Lange and Reinhold Iblacker, Orbis Books, 1981.
External links
- Ford v. Garcia Trial Background. Legal history section of PBS website on "Justice and the Generals" presentation in 2002. Accessed October 7, 2005.
- The Maura Clarke – Ita Ford Center of Brooklyn, New York.
- Martyrdom in El Salvador Maryknoll Sisters website. Accessed October 7, 2005.
- Plant a Tree in Ita Ford's Memory Memorial program in El Salvador in honor of the four churchwomen; accessed December 9, 2006.
- Report of the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador (1993) accessed online December 9, 2006.