St. Joseph/St Raphael Springfield at 225 E. High Street, Springfield, OH 45505-1052 US - St. Lucy Parish, Anapu, Brazil

LETTER FROM Sister Joan Krimm
SND de Namur
Dear Fr. Caylor & Parishioners of St. Joseph/St. Raphael,

Thank you for opening your doors and your hearts to me both at St. Raphael on July 17, and at St. Joseph on August 21. You were so accepting and friendly. You have a special place in the hearts of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, and can be assured of our daily prayers for
each of you.

Thank you for all you have done for Sister Dorothy. She will watch over you always.

Gratefully,
Sister Joan Krimm
SND de Namur

The assassination of Sister Dorothy Stang

Sister Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur from Cincinnati, was assassinated on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2005 in Anapu, Para. Sra. Dorothy was 74 years old and lived in Brazil for more than 30 years. She was a member of the Catholic Church´s Pastoral Land Commission and worked with the Association of Ecological Solidarity in the Amazon area.

At the time of her death, Sr. Dorothy was on her way to a meeting about a project of small scale sustainable agriculture in Boa Esperança, an area that had been granted to landless peasants by the federal government. She was accompanied by two rural workers when she was shot and killed. The two witnesses who escaped are suffering death threats and three more people have been killed in the area since Saturday.

The judicial system in Para has ordered the arrests of four suspects in the case: Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, the landowner who is accused of ordering the assassination, as well as three of his Aprivate security guards, two of whom carried out the assassination.

The town of Anapu, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, is the place where Sr. Dorothy worked in trying to protect the rainforest and its people from disastrous and often illegal exploitation by logging firms and ranchers. The area is notorious for violence, crime, and slave labour. Greenpeace estimates that 90% of the timber in Para is illegally logged. Para also has the country´s highest rate of deaths related to land battles. Just two weeks ago, Sr. Dorothy met Nilmario Miranda, the Brazilian Government´s Human Rights Secretary, and told him of the death threats that she and others had received and asked for the government´s help. According to Miranda, “She always asked for protection for others, never for herself.”

Sr. Dorothy received a number of awards for her work, including the “Human Rights Award” from the Bar Association of Brazil on December 10, 2004. She truly lived the mission statement of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Cincinnati to “take our stand with poor people, especially women and children, in the most abandoned places. Many manifestations against Sr. Dorothy´s assassination have occured throughout the country.”

This week, the federal government sent 2,000 military troops from the army to the area to quell the tensions. According to Bishop Tomás Balduíno, the president of the Pastoral Land Commission, “the presence of the army is palliative. We do not think that this social problem will be resolved with a police or military base. The military dictatorship tried to do this.”

By Joanne Blaney, editor of Sejup

The Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang Exposes
and Condemns the Wickedness of Agribusiness

The following is a transcript of a collective interview with Bishop Tomas Balduino, the President of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) and Bishop Erwin Krõutler of the Diocese of Xingu, Para. The interview was given on February 16, 2005 at the Brazilian Bishops´ Conference in Brasilia.

The brutal assassination of Sister Dorothy, on Saturday, February 12, shocked and triggered outrage in everyone. For Brazil and the world, her death denounces the absurd rural structures of concentration of land in large properties, alongside millions of families who persevere and persist in having a small piece of land to house their family and provide for their sustenance. (Editor´s note: Less than 3% of the population owns two-thirds of Brazil´s arable land and 60% of Brazil´s farmland lies idle while 25 million peasants struggle to survive.)

Large land-owners (latifundium), masked as modern agribusinesses, want to maintain the untouchable land structure because it guarantees them hegemonic power and privileges over all of the aspects of the Brazilian state. These land owners want to open up tracts of the forest to support “economic growth and profit.” Land-owners, loggers, soja planters use the discourse of productivity to take over public lands and territories occupied by traditional peoples - indigenous, river-side populations, small farmers, and many others. They promote the illegal occupancy of properties, the devastation of the forests and pastures, the pollution of waters. At the same time, they do this with the support of the politicians and the state police using many forms of violence, including intimidations, slave work and even assassination.

With the communities of Anapu, Sr. Dorothy was developing a new type of agrarian society, respecting the land as a source of life and helping people live together in society by preserving the values of solidarity, respect for the environment, and in producing self-sustainable food. However, this form of life-style challenges the economic model adapted by Brasil and is seen as an impediment to those who seek, above everything, immediate profits.

In Anapu, with 90% of the land considered uninhabited, social movements succeeded in creating some Sustainable Development Projects (SDP), where 600 families were settled. In these areas, the communities shared equally in the family production and the forest harvest, with complete respect for the environment. Large land-owners used all forms of terror and violence to expel these families, culminating with the prison of peasants and small farmers and ultimately with the death of Sr. Dorothy.

This vile assassination has had an unusual international repercussion and should be resolved quickly with the judgment and punishment of those responsible. The government has already sent more than 2,000 military soldiers to the area. However, the warning of Sr. Dorothy continues: her appeal to the government, which fell on deaf ears, to deal with the organized crime in the region, the involvement of the state authorities and the police in the race and dispute for the domination of the land, at any price. She warned that all of this was a clear challenge and confrontation to constitutional authority.

Along with this, in the Brazilian state, we have a Judicial System, whose practices regarding land questions have been lamentable. A majority of judges have not implemented the constitutional right regarding the social function of property. This judicial power has shown itself extremely partial to expedite initial actions against ownership by peasants and small farmers, and against traditional communities who have occupied the land for many years. In 2003, 35,292 families were evicted from the land in this area. Statistics from 2004 indicate the expulsion of another 34,850 families of small farmers.

This same judicial power that is quick to expel peasants and small farmers is extremely slow to judge crimes committed against them. Of 1,379 deaths in rural areas registered by the Pastoral Land Commision from 1985-2004, only 75 were judged with the condemnation of 15 instigators of the crimes and 64 executors. The massacre of Eldorado de Carajas is emblematic of the way in which crimes against rural workers are treated within the justice system. Of the 154 accused of the crime, only 2 commanders of the troops were condemned.

The witness of the life of Sr. Dorothy demands that Agrarian Reform truly becomes a priority of the Federal Government, without fear of the latifundium, and with the same financial weight that is currently given to agribusiness. The public lands that have been invaded by land-grabbers should be returned to the legal settlement groups. Government resources to combat slave labour should be increased and the agreements with loggers should be suspended along with all of the irregular plans of forest management.

It is urgent that Congress implement Article 51 of the Congressional Transitional Order that regulates the examination of donations, sales and concessions of public lands in the country. It is pressing that Congress put on its agenda for immediate approval the proposal for a Constitutional Amendment to confiscate lands in which there is exploitation of slave labor.

In an ecumenical spirit, the churches of Brazil recently launched the “2005 Fraternal Campaign for Peace, Based Upon Justice.” This year, the Pastoral Land Commission commemorates its 30th anniversary and will celebrate with the theme “Faithful to the God of the Poor, In Service to the People of the Land.” Our sister was assassinated for her faithfulness to this God who took the side of the poor. It was for God that she placed herself radically at the service of the poor people of Anapu. May our martyr, Sister Dorothy, today associated with so many of our other martyrs, Dema, Brasilia, Adelaide, Josimo, Margarida, Gringo and others, whose lives speak so clearly of faithfulness to the Spirit of God, breathe forth strongly this wind of Justice and Peace, the same wind that ignited the small candle of Anapu in the heart of the people of the land, the waters, and the Brazilian people.
__________________________
NEWS FROM BRAZIL supplied by SEJUP (Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz).
Number 525, February 18, 2005

OUR FIRST LETTER FROM OUR TWIN PARISH, SINCE SR. DOROTHY’S MURDER

Paroquia Santa Luzia Rua Santa Luzia,
116 68.365-000
Anapu, Para Brasil

Dear People of St. Joseph ~ St. Raphael’s Parish,

Um grande abraco from Brasil. How can we here thank you for your ever important presence in our lives. We are most grateful for your love of Dorothy, your walking together in our journey in so many ways, your continued concern. Yes, life has been and continues to be difficult.

Dorothy’s case moves along at a fairly rapid pace for Para. Unfortunately, this rapidity, to
our way of thinking, has most to do with winding things up before more people from on high become involved. The judge has called for an October trial. There are five men involved: the two gunmen, an intermediary and two organizers. The trial will surely be a difficult experience, for the lawyers for the defense are incredibly bold and manipulative. We trust in our lawyers
and the Good God that justice may occur. They well may be condemned. So many times, it is later, after a few months in jail that they are released. Such is impunity in Para. The two gunmen will definitely pay the total price of what they have done. The other three, probably not.

We sisters have just had our annual meeting. How we missed Dot, physically in our midst. She was truly with us in spirit. I am in Belem for these two days, so am taking advantage of the computer to write. If you have e-mail, please send it. We don’t have internet in Anapu yet, but we are trying hard to get it.

Thank you so much for continuing to walk with us and Dorothy. Yes, she is still among us. Her grave is in our Sao Rafael Community Center, and is visited regularly. Whenever we have a meeting she is our first and last stop, an ever shining presence in our midst. At the moment it is somewhat difficult to be precise in what we need as our lives are consumed with police investigations and defense of our farmers and their families. There has been a concerted effort to place the blame for Dorothy’s murder on Dorothy herself and the people, implying that we provide arms and incite the people to violence. We have two men in jail and five more in hiding. They are innocent, victims turned culprits in this so topsy turvy world. However, one thing we do need badly is an upgrading of our Sao Rafael Community Center. We need to build a kitchen and a covered place where we can place tables and chairs for eating. We also need to provide electricity for the center. That is possible now, as a friend of ours has built in the next lot and has electricity. He also serves as part time watchman, though our plan is to build a small home where a retired couple can live in peace and quiet, til the land a bit and defend our center. I have no
calculations as yet, and no idea what the possibilities are from your parish. But I promise that whatever you send will be well used in our Community Center. Sister Jo Depweg is going to the states in August and can get in touch with you about bringing money back.

Again, thank you so much for your care and presence in our journey. We will keep in touch. That is a promise.

Um abraco amigo de
(For more information of how you can concretely help, “Jane”
call Deacon Norm at 937-323-7523) Jane Elizabeth Dwyer