Senator Tom Harkin's tribute, S480/481 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—SENATE January 30, 2008
IN MEMORY OF SISTER DOROTHY
MARIE HENNESSEY
Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, on
January 25, all who work and struggle
for social and economic justice, who
dedicate themselves to peace and ending
war, lost a wonderful friend in Sister
Dorothy Marie Hennessey. The
world lost a true Christian soul who, in
her own quiet, humble way, fought relentlessly
for peace and social justice.
Sister Dorothy lived 94 years, 67 of
them as a member of the Sisters of St.
Frances. She was the eldest of 15 brothers
and sisters who grew up on a farm
near Oneida, IA, taught by their parents
that the Golden Rule was not an
abstraction but a way of life. She fondly
always remembered that her family
‘‘always fed and housed the tramps who
came to [their] farm.’’
Sister Dorothy kept her theology
simple and traightforward.
She said:
I’ve learned in 75 years in the convent that
God is a compassionate God who loves all of
us, but who also loves the poor and the people
who are oppressed.
But Sister Dorothy also believed, in
the words of President Kennedy, that
‘‘God’s work on Earth must truly be
our own.’’ She was the opposite of a
cloistered nun. She was an activist.
She stepped forward boldly, if humbly,
to make the world a better and fairer
and more just place.
She taught in Catholic schools in the
Dubuque area for 28 years and another
4 years in Portland, OR. But in the
1960s, her social consciousness came
alive. She was deeply disturbed by the
tragedy unfolding in Vietnam. And she
was shocked to learn from her brother,
also a priest—Father Ron Hennessey, a
longtime missionary in Latin America—
about the atrocities committed by
dictators and their death squads in
Central America.
Father Ron was, as we know—and he
was a friend of mine, and I knew him
well—also a friend of Archbishop Oscar
Romero of El Salvador, and he witnessed
the Salvadoran military firing
on mourners after the archbishop’s assassination.
Sister Dorothy became a leader in a
newly formed human rights group in
Dubuque and spent the rest of her life
engaging in principled acts of dissent
and protest, at times putting her own
life at risk.
For example, in 1984, she went to
Nicaragua with the group Witness for
Peace, acting as human shields to protect
northern border villages from attacks
by the CIA-backed Contras.
In 1986, at the age of 73, she joined
more than 1,000 activists in the Great
Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament,
traveling 3,500 miles from Los
Angeles to Washington, DC—at the age
of 73.
Beginning in 1997, she participated in
annual protests at the School of the
Americas at Fort Benning, GA, where
graduates had been implicated in
human rights abuses all over Latin
America, Central America, including
the murder of six Jesuit priests in El
Salvador.
Sister Dorothy was arrested three
times for crossing the line onto the
Army base. On the third occasion, at
the age of 88, she was one of 3,600 protesters
who were arrested. Twenty-six
of them were selected by lottery to be
prosecuted in Federal court, including
Sister Dorothy and her sibling, Sister
Gwen, also a Franciscan Nun.
Sister Dorothy was sentenced by a
Federal judge to 6 months of detention
in her convent, but she refused this leniency.
She insisted on receiving the
same treatment as her other 25 codefendants.
So her sentence was
changed to 6 months at the Federal
Prison Camp in Illinois. As a Des
Moines Register columnist noted, ‘‘She
was allowed to take her hearing aids,
but not her Bible.’’
After a month and a half, she was
transferred to a correctional facility in
Dubuque, supposedly for health reasons.
But Sister Dorothy knew better.
The real reason was the Federal Government’s
sheer embarrassment at incarcerating
an 88-year-old nun because
she dared to stand up for justice.
During her time in prison, Sister
Dorothy was interviewed by a reporter
with the Public Broadcasting System.
She said:
I feel that it’s our duty. We can’t protest
everything, but we can pick out some of the
worst things to protest, and that’s what I’ve
tried to do.
So into her eighties, nineties, Sister
Dorothy continued to find new ways to
serve people and to help change the
world for the good. From 1996 to 2000,
she worked as a daily volunteer at
Clare House, a residence in Cedar Rapids
for people with AIDS. She cooked
and cleaned for the patients. She spoke
out loudly and clearly, also, for the
rights of gays and lesbians.
On a personal note, I will always be
grateful to Sister Dorothy for her
many years of friendship and counsel.
It has been one of the privileges of my
life to know so many members of that
wonderful, wonderful Hennessey family—
Father Ron, all the years he
risked his life in Central America, and
both Sister Dorothy and Sister Gwen,
and another sister. There is Sister Miriam,
who was tragically killed in a car
incident some years ago. What a wonderful
family.
Sister Dorothy worked for a while as
a senior intern in my Dubuque office. I
say ‘‘for a while’’—actually, for 8
years. She was a great mentor and inspiration
to all of my staff.
So I will always cherish my friendship
not only with Sister Dorothy but
also with Sister Gwen, Sister Miriam,
Father Ron, and so many other members
whom I have known of the entire
Hennessey family.
Madam President, as you can clearly
see, Sister Dorothy was a remarkable
person. I am reminded of the old saying:
We make a living by what we
make; but we make a life by what we
give. Throughout her amazing life, Sister
Dorothy was the ultimate giver.
She gave her adult life to the church
and to the Sisters of St. Frances. She
gave more than three decades of dedicated
service to her students. She gave
her service on boards and in countless
volunteer organizations. And, as I have
pointed out, she gave of herself in dissent
and protest many times against
oppression and to end war.
She gave us her moral passion. She
gave us her fine Christian example. She
gave us her courage and decency, her
love and friendship. She gave it all she
had to make sure the world was a better
place, that we all—all—had that
prickling conscience that things were
not right when poor people suffered,
when war became the norm, when there
were so many abuses of human rights
and oppression against the disenfranchised
and the poor in this country and
in other places around the globe.
So after a rich lifetime of service,
Sister Dorothy has been called home.
She left the world a better place. I am
deeply grateful to have had her as a
friend. To all of the Franciscan nuns,
to her family, of course, my deepest
condolences from me and all of my
family on her passing, but also our
deepest thanks for sharing such a wonderful,
magnificent person with us during
her lifetime.
We will remember her and hopefully
honor Sister Dorothy by continuing to
do what we can to make sure that our
Government works more for social justice
and economic justice, that we turn
away from the instruments of war and
the funding for war and making war
sort of the norm, and that we reach out
in understanding and peace to the rest
of the world. She would have not only
asked nothing less, she would have demanded
nothing less of us.
So we say goodbye to Sister Dorothy
and, again, honor her memory by continuing
to do what we can in our lifetimes
to continue in her great work.
Madam President, I ask unanimous
consent that an article that appeared
today in the Des Moines Register by
Rekha Basu regarding Sister Dorothy
be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the material
was ordered to be printed in the
RECORD. |
