Dorothy Hennessey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sister Dorothy Hennessey, OSF (March 24, 1913 – January 24, 2008) was a Roman Catholic religious sister and activist. Dorothy Hennessey was born in Manchester, Iowa. The 13 Hennessey siblings — Dorothy Marie Hennessey was the eldest — grew up on an Iowa farm. She was 19 years older than her younger, natural sister, Sister Gwen Hennessey, who is also a nun. [1]
Hennessey was drawn to the Peace and Justice movement and the School of the Americas Watch by her brother, Ron Hennessey, a missionary in Latin America from 1964 until his death in 1999. Sister Dorothy Marie's views became more public when she agreed to participate in the Peace walk across the United States in her 70s to protest against the U.S. cold war buildup. She was most widely known for protests at Fort Benning, Georgia, home of the Army's School of the Americas, a facility for training Latin American soldiers. Sister Dorothy, along with Sister Gwen were both arrested and convicted to six months in federal jail for their protest in 2001. Sister Dorothy was 88 years old at the time. [2]
Hennessey believed that the School of the Americas teaches torture techniques to Latin American soldiers, and that graduates of the program have been involved in atrocities, including the 1989 murders of six Jesuit priests and two women in El Salvador. The school denies these claims and argues that it helps to spread democracy in Latin America.
Her brother, Father Ron Hennessey, wrote letters to his family describing his life in Guatemala and El Salvador. In the 1980s, his letters described Mayan Indians in his parish being terrorized and killed by Guatemalan military squads. Father Ron later befriended Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador, and when the Archbishop was assassinated, Father Ron wrote of the funeral in the cathedral when the Salvadoran military fired into the mourners.
In 2002, Dorothy and Gwen Hennessey were awarded the Pacem in Terris Award. It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. Pacem in Terris is Latin for 'Peace on Earth.'
Sister Dorothy Hennessey, OSF, died on January 24, 2008, aged 94. At the time of her death she resided at a Dubuque, Iowa Franciscan Order religious center.
