Sunday, September 11, 2005

Sister Moira - A Convicted Felon?



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A point of clarification:
I am not a convicted felon (although for the right reason, it would be an honor.)

My offense of entering a military base during a peaceful demonstration against the School of the Americas was a misdemeanor. For this I served a 6 month sentence in a federal prison camp - a co-defendant and I were the only ones there for misdemeanors!

As I said in my trial statement: "It is ironic that the atrocities and murders committed by graduates of the School of the Americas are allowed to continue, while those who protest them are sent to prison."
~Sister Moira

3 comments:

Kanickers said...

Sr. Moira, or Nun Kenny to her shameless detractors, is a True Christian. She puts her body on the line for Jesus (the least of our brethren).

How many saints did jail time at the hands of corrupt rulers of both church and state? I think that you would be surprised at the large number. I doubt that anyone else in the valley can claim to follow Jesus more than her.
~An admiring parishioner

Kanickers said...

What is the School of the Americas?

I did some research on the SOA Watch website www.SOAW.org and found the following:

The SOA is a combat training school for Latin American military and police forces. Frequently dubbed the "School of Assassins," has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned. Graduates of the school have been consistently linked to human rights violations and to the suppression of popular movements in the Americas. The purpose of the SOA is, and has always been, to control the economic and political systems of Latin America by aiding and influencing Latin American militaries.

In 1996, The Pentagon was forced to release training manuals that were used at the SOA.
These SOA training manuals advocate targeting those who...

- Support "union organizing or recruiting".
- Distribute "propaganda in favor of the interest of workers".
- "Sympathize with demonstrations or strikes".
- Make "accusations that the government has failed to meet the basic need of the people".

Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared", massacred, and forced into refuge by those trained at the SOA.

Wow! No wonder Sr. Moira "crossed the line" to protest this horrible school.

What an example of sacrificing one's own life so that others may live.
~A Parishioner deeply touched by her example.

Kanickers said...

Your comments about Sr. Moira and the School of the Americas were very interesting. I visited the SOAW website and I invite your readers to do the same.

Interesting Facts:
Maryknoll priest Fr. Roy Burgeois founded School of Americas Watch (SOAW) in 1990. It seeks to close the SOA through demonstrations, vigils, fasts, and media legislative work.

Prison witness has been a core element of the SOA Watch movement since its beginning. In the tradition of Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., Aung San Suu Kyi and countless others, SOA Watch activists have used peaceful, nonviolent resistance to expose the horrors of the SOA/ WHINSEC and to express solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Latin America.

As a result, more than 180 SOA Watch human rights defenders, many of whom are Catholic priests and religious, have collectively spent over 81 years in prison. Nearly 50 people have served probation sentences. Their sacrifice and steadfastness in the struggle for peace and justice provide an extraordinary example of love in action and have given tremendous momentum to the effort to change oppressive US foreign policy and to close the SOA/ WHINSEC.

A quick overview of SOA graduates:
· Two of three officers cited in the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador.
· Three of five officers cited in the rape and murder of four U.S. churchwomen in El Salvador.
· Ten of twelve cited for the El Mozote massacre of 900 civilians (including children, babies and the elderly).
· Nineteen of twenty-six officers cited for the assassination of six Jesuit priests.

This information is from the United Nations Truth Commission Report on the war in El Salvador.

In more recent news the Human Rights Watch report on Colombia cites 247 military officials responsible for violations in that country. Of those, 124 were SOA graduates.
~A parishioner