Justice for Sr Dorothy Stang
Sr Dorothy Stang was a missionary who spent most of her 30 years in Brazil organizing poor rural settlers and fighting alongside local environmentalists to protect their land from being taken from them by powerful cattle ranchers and timber merchants. Given her deep Christian faith and her work for justice and ecology, it was most appropriate that the verdict to convict the man behind her murder should have come after Easter, when Jesus who was unjustly killed was vindicated by his new risen life.
On Monday April 12, 2010, a jury in Sao Paulo reached its verdict and convicted Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, a local rancher, for ordering the 2005 murder of Sr Dorothy Stang and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. In 2007, Mr. Moura was convicted of ordering the killing of Sr. Stang and received a 30-year sentence, but that verdict was overturned in a retrial the following year. The life, work and death of Sr Dorothy Stang are a clear reminder of what the mission of the Church ought to be. In line with the Gospel and ministry of Jesus, His followers are called to stand with those who are on the margins of society, to support the endangered earth even when such a course of action might have dire consequences. Like Jesus, Sr Stang gave her life for “the life of the world.”
Under Brazilian law, a retrial is required for first offenders who are sentenced to more than 20 years. In that retrial, the jury voted to accept the defense that Mr. Moura had no motive to be involved in Sr Stang’s killing and that it had been carried out solely by Rayfran das Neves Sales, who confessed to shooting her, was convicted and is serving a 28-year sentence. The prosecutor claimed that Mr. Sales had been offered $25,000 to kill Sr Dorothy after she fought to preserve a piece of jungle that ranchers wanted to clear for logging and cattle ranching.
The trials were seen as tests of Brazil’s willingness to prosecute murders over land use in the violent and largely lawless Amazon frontier. Sr Stang was seen as a leader in the movement for justice and ecological sustainability. The 2008 trial drew international attention. Although Sr Stang was a naturalized Brazilian, she was originally from Dayton, Ohio.
Fr Sean McDonagh SSC is a researcher on Justice Peace Integrity
Creation (JPIC) priorities
