The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia

Aston, PA– Twelve members of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia joined thousands of people from across the Americas-including Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)-the weekend of November 17-18 at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia. They joined together in peaceful, prayerful opposition to the School of the Americas (SOA), a combat-training school for Latin American soldiers, based at Fort Benning. The Franciscan sisters who attended were:

• Sister Hope Bauerlin - Silver Spring, MD
• Sister Marie Lucey - Hyattsville, MD
• Sister Joanne Clavel - Spokane, WA
• Sister Dominica LoBianco - Aston, PA
• Sister Miriam Eileen Murray -Brookhaven, PA
• Sister Catherine O’Donnell - Media, PA
• Sister Joan Schmal - Prospect Park, PA
• Sister Jean Rupertus - Glen Riddle, PA
• Sister Doris Johnson - Glen Riddle, PA
• Sister Mary Beth Antonelli - Philadelphia, PA
• Sister Catherine Alexis Murray - Langhorne, PA
• Sister Virginia Spiegel - Wilmington, DE

Joining the Franciscans sisters were a group of students from Neumann College in Aston, Pennsylvania, a college sponsored by the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia.

The Sisters of St. Francis were among the thousands who processed before the gates of Fort Benning, carrying crosses with the names of people massacred or “disappeared.” (L-R) Sisters Hope Bauerlin, Dominica LoBianco, Miriam Eileen Murray, Catherine O’Donnell, Virginia Spiegel, Jean Rupertus Joanne Clavel, Doris Johnson, Mary Beth Antonelli, Marie Lucey, Joan Schmal, Catherine Alexis Murray.

For Sister Miriam Eileen Murray, the gathering was about “faith doing justice.” This phrase, she explained “expresses the core of my experience during our weekend spent standing in peaceful, prayerful protest at the gates of Fort Benning. Twenty-five thousand stood with us-young and old, people of all cultures. We heard the heart-rending stories of those whose loved ones were murdered or “disappeared” at the hands of graduates of this infamous school. Thousands who died are not known to us by name but we do know Oscar Romero, the six Jesuits and their housekeepers, the four American Church women, and many others.

Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refuge by graduates of the SOA, renamed in 2001 the Western Hempishere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). SOA/ WHINSEC graduates return to their countries to utilize their training domestically and are consistently cited for atrocities against their own people. The 2007 gathering culminated on Sunday, November 18, with the traditional solemn “funeral” procession to the gates of Fort Benning, memorializing those who were killed or “disappeared.” One of those participating was Adriana Portillo-Bartow who wept as she placed a cross on the fence of Fort Benning commemorating the disappearances and/or deaths of her two young daughters, and her father, stepmother, sister, and sister-in-law in Guatemala.

The 2007 gathering marked the most diverse demonstration yet of opposition to the School of the Americas. Catholic sisters, Buddhist monks, veterans from various wars, women and men of all ages and backgrounds-all walked, prayed, and sang together. High school and college students came in even greater numbers than in previous years. Reverend Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch, was particularly impressed by the large number of young participants. “That is what has given me such joy-to see that a majority of the people here are high school and college students,” he explained. “We are passing the baton to the future peacemakers. And we need them. We are working for hope and I see that in our youth.”

The SOA Watch has held a vigil at the gates of Fort Benning every November since 1990 and many, like Sister Miriam Eileen, have returned there year after year. “I, and others like me, intend to stand at Fort Benning until our congresspersons realize that we cannot condemn terrorism at the hands of others and still teach tactics of terrorism in Georgia, funded with American tax monies,” she explained. “Others can stand with us by contacting their congresspersons and asking them to sign on to existing legislation that calls for cutting funding for the SOA.” For additional details, visit the School of the Americas Watch website, www.soaw.org.