The move begins with the murder of four American women. The women are Dorothy Kazel, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, and Jean Donavan. The women where in El Salvador providing food, shelter, medical care and burial to the poor. A death squad targeted the groups of women for assassination. The documentary mainly focuses on one of the women in the group, Jean Donovan.
Donovan was born to a middle-class family in Connecticut in 1953. Raised Catholic and discovered her faith growing as she encountered missionaries in collage. In collage Jean met a priest who challenged her to move beyond her comfortable life and do more for the world. She volunteered for the Diocese of Cleveland to work in youth ministry. During that time she decided to join the Diocesan Mission Project in El Salvador in 1977. In El Salvador she grew to admire the Archbishop Oscar Romero and attended Mass at his cathedral. In addition to aiding the poor Donovan and her missionaries often buried the war’s dead.
She was assassinated on December 2, 1980 after picking up the two Maryknoll sisters at the local airport. Eight months after Archbishop Romero was murdered.
Had I been a junior in high school during the time of Jean Donovan’s death my reaction would be sorrowful. Why would anyone want to kill a Catholic missionary for helping the poor? Yes, could see myself living my life as Jean did. Entering a country where war
