A Radical Faith: The Assassination of Sister Maura

by Eileen Markey

Overview

On a hot and dusty December day in 1980, the bodies of four American women-three of them Catholic nuns-were pulled from a hastily dug grave in a field outside San Salvador. They had been murdered two nights before by the US-trained El Salvadoran military. News of the killing shocked the American public and set off a decade of debate over Cold War policy in Latin America. The women themselves became symbols and martyrs, shorn of context and background.

In A Radical Faith, journalist Eileen Markey breathes life back into one of these women, Sister Maura Clarke. Who was this woman in the dirt? What led her to this vicious death so far from home? Maura was raised in a tight-knit Irish immigrant community in Queens, New York, during World War II. She became a missionary as a means to a life outside her small, orderly world and by the 1970s was organizing and marching for liberation alongside the poor of Nicaragua and El Salvador.

Maura's story offers a window into the evolution of postwar Catholicism: from an inward-looking, protective institution in the 1950s to a community of people grappling with what it meant to live with purpose in a shockingly violent world. At its heart, A Radical Faith is an intimate portrait of one woman's spiritual and political transformation and her courageous devotion to justice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781568585734
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	11/08/2016
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	767,499
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Eileen Markey is the editor of Without Compromise, an anthology by Village Voice muckrakerWayne Barrett, and the author of A Radical Faith: The Assassination of Sister Maura. She isan assistant professor of journalism at Lehman College of the City University of New York and a veteran NYC policy reporter who has also reported from Haiti, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Cambodia and the U.S. Mexico border. She has written for, among others, The Daily Beast, The New Republic,The New York Times, City Limits, The Daily News, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and The Village Voice. Markey worked as a reporter and producer at WNYC New York Public Radio. She has lectured widely on the role of religion in radical social movements. Her work today focuses on the role of public memory in shaping allegiances. She lives with her family in the Bronx.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Four Dead in El Salvador 1

1 Between City and Sea 13

2 Into the Silence: Novitiate 37

3 The Bronx Is Mission Territory 55

4 Siuna: Away in the jungle 65

5 A Changing Mission 89

6 Into Managua 115

7 The Convent Is in the Street 143

8 Mission to the United States 179

9 Into the Darkness 203

10 In the Valley of Death 219

Epilogue: A Terrible Beauty 253

Acknowledgments 263

Notes 269

Index 307

Editorial Reviews

Eileen Markey's A Radical Faith: The Assassination of Sister Maura is not an investigation into the killing itself, like Francisco Goldman's The Art of Political Murder, a masterly book that delved into the web of intrigue and deception surrounding the 1998 homicide of Bishop Juan Gerardi in Guatemala. But what Markey accomplishes is something equally valuable: to painstakingly map out the path that brought one of the nuns, Maura Clarke, nearly 50 years old, almost inevitably to that ditch in a foreign land…A Radical Faith has resurrected her so that Sister Maura can…continue her mission in search of justice. There is no better time to listen to this brave, compassionate woman, a committed role model for all those who, secular or religious, want to be "truly free."

The New York Times Book Review - Ariel Dorfman

09/12/2016
In this irresistible biography, investigative journalist Markey pays homage to Maryknoll sister Maura Clarke, a missionary who became a household name in the United States when she and three fellow church workers—Jean Donovan, Dorothy Kazel, and Ita Ford—were murdered by El Salvadoran security forces on December 2, 1980 (four of the over 7,500 casualties of that country’s brutal 12-year civil war). Through interviews, Clarke’s extensive personal correspondence, government and Maryknoll records, and contemporary news coverage of the murders, Markey reconstructs the personal and geopolitical contexts of Sister Maura’s work among the poor and disenfranchised in the United States, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Born in 1931, Sister Maura grew up in an era of Catholic nationalism and anti-communism. She joined the Maryknoll order (in part because she yearned for adventure) after completing high school, experienced the upheaval of Vatican II, and was profoundly influenced by the liberation theology and grassroots practice of her fellow missionaries in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Her death made headlines, but Sister Maura’s life story shows how political engagement informed by faith does not always map neatly onto national and international agendas. At times, Markey’s driving question—“How did this woman get here?”—seems to remove Sister Maura from the long history of social justice activism within the Christian tradition. Yet overall, the work is a moving portrait of one woman’s determination to do what she could to heal a broken world. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"In death, Maryknoll Sister Maura Clarke became known as a symbol of the brutality of El Salvador's pitiless conflict in the 1980s. In this rare and beautiful book, Eileen Markey brings Maura to life. From her childhood in a tightly knit Irish Catholic neighborhood to her departure for Nicaragua in 1959 and subsequent murder in El Salvador, Maura's life became interwoven with the tumultuous history of Cold War Central America. Drawing on personal correspondence and extensive interviews, Markey skillfully evokes the transformation of the Catholic Church during those turbulent decades, crafting a searing testament to the meaning of faith amidst the hard choices imposed by desperate circumstances."—Cynthia Arnson, Director, Latin American Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

"A Radical Faith brings excitement, tension, and compassion to an overlooked story...Rich details and solid storytelling convey one nun's story of her dedication to God and her fellow humans."—Kirkus Reviews

"I've always believed that responsibility, honesty, and faith are the three pillars of a strong character. Sister Maura Clarke, who recognized the humanity in everyone she met-from schoolchildren in the Bronx to farmers in Nicaragua-lived a life that served as a testament to that strength. Eileen Markey's beautifully told narrative reminds us of Maura's courage in the face of brutal dictators and shocking suffering. It's an important story that has been forgotten for too long, and Markey's book returns Maura to her deserved place in history."—Martin Sheen

From the Publisher

10/15/2016
Investigative journalist Markey's debut biography documents the work and martyrdom of Maryknoll Sister Maura Clarke (1931–80) and the impact of her death. The daughter of Irish immigrants, Sister Maura was raised in an era in which "the patriotism and the Catholicism were assertive…and intermixed." Her family's historical involvement in the Irish Catholic/Protestant battles fostered her devotion to fighting oppression through the Catholic Maryknoll missionary organization. Although also posted domestically, she is best known for her international work in Nicaragua and El Salvador. In both countries, the military dictators felt Catholics were "subversive…because they side with the poor." Ultimately, this viewpoint led to the El Salvadoran state-sponsored murder of Sister Maura and three nuns in 1980. Partial justice for the families took 35 years. Markey "seeks to put [Maura] back in context…to make her whole again." She achieves this through church records and the nun's extensive personal correspondence, which document her complete devotion to missionary service. In addition to complementing Penny Lernoux's Hearts on Fire, this fills a biographical vacuum. Although it may find limited secular readership, Sister Maura's story is powerful yet ultimately devastating. VERDICT An absorbing, if specific, account of tragedy at the intersection between faith and politics.—Jessica Bushore, Xenia, OH

Library Journal

2016-08-24
The biography of a Catholic nun who was murdered while trying to help those in need.Raised in an Irish Catholic family in Queens, New York, Maura Clarke’s decision to join the Maryknoll sisters and dedicate her life to working as a missionary for God came as no real surprise to her family and friends. “What drove Maura toward the convent was not a desire for safety or rigidity,” writes investigative journalist Markey, “but a sense of purpose, a desire to do practical good in the world and to lead a life that was big, significant, meaningful.” In 1959, Clarke accepted her first posting in Siuna, Nicaragua, where the locals were fighting against abject poverty under the Somoza regime. After several years there, Clarke had a short stint back in the United States before being reassigned to El Salvador, another country whose residents were battling for freedom under a strict government. The author ably blends the personal story of Clarke’s life and dedication to her belief in God and her work with the changes in procedures that have taken place in the Catholic Church in the past 60 years as well as the political, cultural, and societal upheavals that Clarke experienced in the foreign countries to which she was assigned. The combination of elements brings excitement, tension, and compassion to an overlooked story that illuminates the courage and dedication of the sisters toward their fellow humans while highlighting the cruelty and senseless violence that have plagued Latin America for decades. For anyone interested in learning more about the multiple civil wars in Central America and the roles the American government and these Catholic sisters have had in encouraging change, this book is a great choice. Rich details and solid storytelling convey one nun’s story of her dedication to God and her fellow humans.

Kirkus Reviews