Jeff Fortenberry: “With great solemnity and gratitude, today I wish to honor four grace-filled women. Each of them were called to live…”

“With great solemnity and gratitude, today I wish to honor four grace-filled women. Each of them were called to live their faith in the nation that bears their Savior's name. Each worked tirelessly to bring hope, healing, and joy to the poor of El Salvador. Each were bound together in tragedy on December 2, 1980. Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and a young woman named Jean Donovan each traveled different paths to El Salvador. In the words of Sister Dorothy, they were united by a powerful sense of responsibility to ``spread the Gospel to people who needed help.'' They sought to bring peace and comfort to vulnerable persons caught in a maelstrom of political turmoil on the cusp of a brutal 12-year civil war that followed the 1980 murder of newly beatified Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was killed by an assassin's bullet as he said Mass. Mr. Speaker, Sister Dorothy and Jean had each joined a mission team from the diocese of Cleveland, Ohio. Together they worked to ferry food and medical supplies to the sick and wounded, in whom they saw the face of Christ. Sister Dorothy had been engaged, but postponed her marriage to test a call to religious life. Jean Donovan wanted to get closer to Christ in the poor, though her friends hoped that she would leave El Salvador. Reunited with her fiance briefly to attend a friend's wedding in Ireland, Jean actually chose to stay in El Salvador a little bit longer.…”