A Radical Faith: The Assassination of Sister Maura

In this irresistible biography, investigative journalist Markey pays homage to Maryknoll sister Maura Clarke, a missionary who became a household name in the United States when she and three fellow church workers—Jean Donovan, Dorothy Kazel, and Ita Ford—were murdered by El Salvadoran security forces on December 2, 1980 (four of the over 7,500 casualties of that country’s brutal 12-year civil war). Through interviews, Clarke’s extensive personal correspondence, government and Maryknoll records, and contemporary news coverage of the murders, Markey reconstructs the personal and geopolitical contexts of Sister Maura’s work among the poor and disenfranchised in the United States, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Born in 1931, Sister Maura grew up in an era of Catholic nationalism and anti-communism. She joined the Maryknoll order (in part because she yearned for adventure) after completing high school, experienced the upheaval of Vatican II, and was profoundly influenced by the liberation theology and grassroots practice of her fellow missionaries in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Her death made headlines, but Sister Maura’s life story shows how political engagement informed by faith does not always map neatly onto national and international agendas. At times, Markey’s driving question—“How did this woman get here?”—seems to remove Sister Maura from the long history of social justice activism within the Christian tradition. Yet overall, the work is a moving portrait of one woman’s determination to do what she could to heal a broken world. [em](Nov.) [/em]