TV

Award-winning documentary keeps murdered nun’s mission alive

By Janice L. Semmel | March 19, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

SEDONA — After making the Academy Awards short list, the HBO documentary “They Killed Sister Dorothy” added Director’s Choice Best Documentary Film to its honors at the 15th Annual Sedona International Film Festival on March 1.

The documentary’s power comes from photos of both the life and death of Sr. Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN. Sr. Dorothy’s body at the murder scene, interviews with the men involved in her murder and Brazilian court proceedings rivet viewers to the conditions she experienced.

Scenes interwoven throughout the documentary capture the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest, Sr. Dorothy working with Brazilians, her youngest brother David Stang in Brazil after her death and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur as they continue her mission.

In the documentary, Sr. Rebecca Spires states, “The death of the forest is the end of life — our life.”

Valley residents led by Sr. Janice Bohn from Sr. Dorothy’s community along with Kathy F. Yontz and Kathy Hansen, Sr. Dorothy’s former students, Associate of Notre Dame Bernice Perez and Brazilian-born Mara Bedner attended the film’s final showing.

Sr. Janice, Yontz and Hansen knew and visited Sr. Dorothy in Brazil and spoke about her to viewers after the film.

“Her whole way of life is based on our shared belief in the goodness of God,” Sr. Janice said. “That’s where her source of hope really was. That regardless of what happens… the justice of God might work slowly, but it will come, and the belief that earth is here to share for all human beings and that we need to be aware and wise and caring about each other as we try to work for the good of the planet that we share.”

Sr. Dorothy spent 13 years at Most Holy Trinity School in Sunnyslope, Sr. Janice said. “It was from here that she received her mission to go to Brazil.”

Yontz said Sr. Dorothy was their fifth- and eighth-grade teacher and principal at Most Holy Trinity School.

“Every Friday after school, we got in her old station wagon and went to the migrant ranches. We worked with the kids while Sr. Dorothy questioned the ranchers. She believed in literacy for everyone, and she loved people,” Yontz said.

In 1971, Yontz and Hansen visited Sr. Dorothy in Brazil. Sr. Dorothy wore no habit, Hansen noted, and she said, “Just call me Dot.” She read about sustainability and was aware of current events.

Hansen said she and Yontz experienced the respect Sr. Dorothy had for the dignity of the human person. 

“Her mission was all encompassing. It wasn’t just about telling people about a good and generous Savior; it was proving that the Savior was good and generous,” Hansen said.

She also explained that the sisters were in constant peril in Brazil. 

“Even when we were there, which was in the early ’70s, the Sisters then had a steel box where they had money in case they had to leave right away,” Hansen said. “There was never a time when she was there that it wasn’t a dangerous mission.”

“We would love to see the justice finally done,” Sr. Janice said, “but one of the things that’s most important is the raising of consciousness of people everywhere, not only about injustices but also about what’s happening in the Amazon. If the trials have to keep going on to keep us aware, that’s what Dorothy was about and that’s where her mission lies.”