Dorothy and Gwen Hennessey, OSF
Standing Together, Acting Nonviolently to End Violence
-- as "Sister Sisters"
SOA Watch Nonviolent Civil Disobedience
Sentenced to Jail Continued Outreach with Others
Brother's Influence Life-long Commitment Postscript
Two sister-sisters sent to jail? At the same time? For the same "crime?" What in the world happened?
That is just it. It is because of what is going on in the world -- something which does not live up to U.S. ideals of freedom and democracy. Namely, U.S.-trained soldiers are accused of human rights abuses throughout Central and South America. Graduates of the U.S. Army's infamous School of the Americas (SOA) have been implicated in the killing and torture of innocent people, including the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter in El Salvador.
Renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC) and located at Fort Benning, Georgia, SOA has been the focus of yearly protests calling for its closure. Directed by Maryknoll Father Ray Bourgeois, SOA Watch has organized demonstrations and civil disobedience since 1990 as "a voice for the voiceless" people of countries without democracies. Non-violent civil disobedience is a way to draw attention to actions that are contrary to U.S. ideals.
Dorothy and Gwen Hennessey, "sister-sisters" (biological sisters who are also Dubuque Franciscan Sisters), participated in SOA Watch protests in 2000. Their standing together non-violently, along with thousands of social justice activists, ended up taking them to jail together.
Both were among the 3,400 who risked being arrested for "crossing the line" at the annual SOA protest in November 2000. Going onto the Fort Benning base, the protestors carried white crosses with the names of slain Central Americans believed to be victims of SOA graduates. Of those who crossed, sixty-five had been previously warned against trespassing. Of these, thirteen women and thirteen men were selected for prosecution. They received the maximum sentence of 6-months in jail and became known as the SOA 26.
Dorothy and Gwen are two of four Catholic sisters of SOA 26. Others include a chaplain (see his statement before the judge), a NASA senior research scientist, homemakers, teachers, environmentalists, an artist, a baker, and a student.
Given the choice of 6-months of house arrest at the headquarters of her community in Dubuque, Iowa, then 88-year old Dorothy declined. She told the judge that she is not an invalid and that she did not want special treatment. Thus, she and her then 68-year old sister, Gwen, reported for jail together at Pekin, the minimum-security prison for women in Illinois. Dorothy wore a small pin that read, "No one is free when others are oppressed."
Dorothy had never served time in jail. Gwen had spent a few hours in jail for a sit-in protesting U.S. aid to Nicaraguan contras. As they served their sentences, Dorothy and Gwen reached out to others as others also reached out to them -- teaching each other the rules of prison life, sharing stories, and praying together. Gwen took special care of her older sister until Dorothy was transferred to a Department of Corrections house in Dubuque due to the concerns of prison officials about Dorothy's health.
Receiving the maximum sentence and going to jail was not something that either Gwen or Dorothy wanted or anticipated. Neither one was afraid to go to prison; "it strips you of your dignity and the whole bit," Gwen noted. At the same time, she believes that "it is a small price to pay if it's going to bring attention to the fact that our brothers and sisters in Latin America have suffered."
Sister-sisters going to jail captured the attention of the U.S. media. Their story has been shared via the New York Times, Fox National News, PBS, BBC, and many others. For Dorothy and Gwen, the interviews become teaching moments.
Dorothy and Gwen saw their time of confinement as another form of ministry. Their service as Franciscans -- over 50 years for Gwen and more than 70 years for Dorothy -- has taken many forms.
Years ago, when she was 73, Dorothy walked across the United States as part of the Great Peace March to protest the cold war with Russia. She has traveled to Guatemala with a Friendship Force group, visited Honduras as part of a Witness for Peace delegation, protested nuclear weapons and testing, and served as an official observer for the 1990 Nicaraguan elections.
Gwen helped César Chavez organize migrant workers, worked with the poor in New York City, and served the needy in Appalachia. She also was the first director of the Catholic Peace Ministry in the Des Moines Diocese. In 1997, she was the recipient of the Bishop Maurice Dingman Peace Award.
More recently, Dorothy had a ministry with AIDS patients in Iowa. Gwen became the House Manager of Clare Guest House (initiated by her community and located Sioux City, Iowa), a transitional home for women who have been incarcerated.
Their life-long commitment to the well-being of others began as part of a large, Christ-centered family. Dorothy Marie was the oldest of the 15 Hennessey siblings who grew up on a farm in Iowa. Dorothy recalls that they "were fervent Catholics, who learned to pray from our father." She said, "We always fed and housed the tramps that came around our farm." Three Hennessey daughters became Franciscan sisters and one son became a Maryknoll priest.
Dorothy and Gwen were both inspired by their brother, the late brother Father Ron Hennessey. In the 1960s, he began 34 years of missionary work in Latin America before dying suddenly of a heart attack a few years ago.
Gwen first learned about Latin America from his letters to his family. In them, he described Mayan Indians in his parish being terrorized and killed by Guatemalan military squads. "Help stop the madness," he wrote. Father Ron was a friend of the late Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated in 1980 while serving Mass. His killers had ties to the notorious School of the Americas.
Gwen and Dorothy share a devotion to raising awareness as to what is going on in the world. They have a life-long commitment to act nonviolently in order to help end violence at home and abroad. It was their shared commitment to shaping a just and peaceful world that took both of them to Fort Benning. Their actions, even going to jail, are testaments to their desire to heed Pope Paul VI's maxim, "if you want peace, work for justice." In 2002, they received the Pacem in Terris Award.
Dorothy died on January 24, 2008, at the age of 94. As an ever-faithful advocate for a just and peaceful world, Dorothy's legacy of thinking "outside the box" lives on in the lives of those she touched. Sister Dorothy Marie Hennessey, Presente!
*****
Another member of the SOA 26 is David Corcoran.
You are invited to read his testimony before the judge, "We Are All One Body."
Joyce Ellwanger, a later SOA protester, wrote Prison Fog,
a moving piece about her time in jail.
Acknowledgements: Gratitude to--
Robert Campagna of Abbey Creek Gallery for use of his picture.
Sisters of St. Francis of Dubuque for use of the pictures by Judy Geisen and Sister Janet May
Institute for Peace and Justice for use of their Pope Paul VIth graphic