Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community, Sarasota, FL
and
Manasota Chapter of Pax Christi USA
A rose for each martyr.)
GRAVESIDE SERVICE IN MEMORY OF JEAN DONOVAN
42ND ANNIVERSARY— December 2, 1980-2022
The following information is in preparation for our Zoom Graveside Service scheduled for 4:00 pm Friday afternoon, December 2, 2022
To connect to Zoom, please follow the instructions below:
You can join the meeting between 3:45-4:00PM
To connect via the internet:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82651606691?pwd=cklwWmFCVVFXYm95T3gzYzN5d28vdz09
Meeting ID: 826 5160 6691
Passcode: 688693
One tap mobile: 1-305-224-1968,
Meeting ID: 826 5160 6691
Passcode: 688693
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Beth: In 2005, the newly formed Manasota Chapter of Pax Christi USA was formed by nineteen people from the surrounding area of Manatee and Sarasota counties. One of its first undertakings was to honor the Salvadoran Martyr, Jean Donovan, who—it was discovered—was buried in Sarasota Memorial Cemetery alongside her beloved parents. It was later revealed that an earlier Pax Christi Chapter in Sarasota, [1980’s?] also honored her grave, perhaps very close to the original burial date. They continued to do so for a number of years. When the Chapter died out, individuals continued to show up on Dec 2, including our own Helen and Jack Duffy.
It was in 2005 that members of the Manasota Chapter met with the Duffy’s, and a service was carried out by a large number of participants. Services have continued each year to this day.
Beth: We warmly welcome you to our inclusive Catholic Community of Mary Mother of Jesus based in Sarasota, FL. Since the time of pandemic, we have become a community without walls or boundaries, thanks to the technology of ZOOM. While everyone will be muted for most of the Service today, we invite you to join MaryAl in the parts designated “All” and to sing aloud our closing song [while on mute, of course]. All readers previously designated will “unmute” for their part. We hope you enjoy this special ZOOM event, a special offering of the MMOJ Community and the Manasota Chapter of Pax Christi USA. And, again, thanks for coming! [pause]
Our Opening Song will be Courageous Women by Jan Novotka, Video by MT Streck (Jean is featured as one of the Courageous Women)
https://youtu.be/x8YdXUl4ZsQ
Michael: Today we honor a dedicated lay woman, missionary and martyr whose memory will not be forgotten. As the great Ignatius of Antioch once said, “It is in the blood of martyrs we find the seeds of faith.” Let our faith be nourished as we gather before the earthly remains of our sister, Jean, and our desire be enkindled to follow in like commitment…to the death.
MaryAl//ALL: [together] Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest.
Michael: Jean Donovan received a masters degree in business administration from Case Western Reserve University, and then took a job as management consultant for an accounting firm in Cleveland, Ohio. She was on her way to a successful business career.
MaryAl M/ALL: [together] And anyone among you who wishes to be first must serve the needs of all.
Jerry: “What do you want?” Jesus asked.
Michael: But Jean was not content and began a search for some deeper meaning in life. While volunteering in the Cleveland Diocese Youth Ministry with the poor, she heard about the diocesan mission project in El Salvador. It was what she was looking for.
MaryAl/ALL: [together] You must serve, as if enslaved, just as the Promised One came not to be served but to serve.
Candlelight gathering in Sarasota Cemetery
Joan P: “Can you drink of the cup I am going to drink?” Jesus asked.
Michael: After her training, including a stint at Maryknoll in New York, Jean arrived in El Salvador, July 1979. It was a time when repression by government forces was intensifying against rebel forces and the church had become a major target. Jean became Caritas coordinator for the Cleveland Diocesan mission program.
MaryAl/ALL: [together] Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest.
Lee: “Can you drink of the cup I am going to drink?” Jesus asked.
Anna: In addition to keeping the books, Jean worked at the local parish in La Libertad with Dorothy Kazel, an Ursuline sister from Cleveland, distributing food for the poor and the refugees as well as carrying out family education programs.
MaryAl/ALL: [together] Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest.
Jerry: “Can you drink of the cup I am going to drink?” Jesus asked.
Anna: Jean’s time in El Salvador led her to those fundamental challenges of the meaning of life, of faith, in a world torn by injustice and violence against the poorest, the most vulnerable. It was a personal challenge.
MaryAl/ALL: [together] And anyone among you who wishes to be first must serve the needs of all.
Joan P: “Can you drink of the cup I am going to drink?” Jesus asked.
Marchers with Romero pictures
Michael: Her mother Patricia in Sarasota said of her daughter’s work, “Jean took her commitment to the compesinos very seriously. She was strongly motivated by St. Francis of Assisi and by Archbishop Oscar Romero. She translated God’s teaching into clothing for the poor, feeding the hungry, and caring for the wounded refugees—mainly children who had lost what little they had.
MaryAl/ALL: [together] Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest.
Lee: “Can you drink of the cup I am going to drink?” Jesus asked.
Michael: Jean was very devoted to Msgr. Romero, often coming the cathedral on Sundays to hear his homilies which at that time were the only source of news and truth left in El Salvador. After his assassination, Jean and Dorothy were among those who took turns keeping vigil at his coffin. They were present in the cathedral when the overflow crowd in the plaza attending his funeral on March 20, 1980, was attacked by security forces of the government, resulting in a panicked stampede. This massacre left 44 laying dead and hundreds of wounded here and there. As Jean sat crowded among the desperate people who fled into the cathedral for safety, she fully believed that she might die that day.
MaryAl/ALL: [together] You must serve, as if enslaved, just as the Promised One came not to be served but to serve.
Jerry: “Very well,” said Jesus, “you will drink of my cup.”
Michael: The repression touched her in other very personal ways. Friends were killed by death squads. She witnessed one such killing. Many of her friends tried to persuade her to leave El Salvador, but she comforted them with the quip, “They don’t kill blond-haired, blue-eyes North Americans.”
Two weeks before she was murdered, with the bloodbath already begun, she wrote to a friend in Connecticut: “Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I almost could except for the children, the poor bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? Whose heart would be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and helplessness. Not mine, dear friend, not mine.”
Michael: The destinies of Maryknoll sisters, Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan were joined together in just the last months of their lives. Murdered together by National Guardsmen in El Salvador on December 2, 1980, their deaths became martyrdom for a church of the poor in El Salvador and for thousands in the United States. Their deaths are understood as martyrdom because the women did what Jesus of Nazareth did, and what he told us we should do to show we are disciples in this world—they loved the poor, and laid down their lives for them. In this way, they became “friends” of Jesus.
MaryAl/ALL: [together] May they rest in peace, may she rest in peace, may the martyrs reign on high! Alleluia!
Closing Prayer offered by Lee Breyer
Compassionate God of the Universe, tonight we remember!
We remember Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel; we remember lay missionary, Jean Donovan; we remember Maryknoll sisters, Ita Ford and Maura Clarke.
They believed in Christ and they dedicated their lives in serving the poor. We have told their story and brought to mind the sacrifices they made for the people of El Salvador.
Help us, Liberating God, to realize that—just like these martyred churchwomen—we have a responsibility to light the way for justice in the world.
Help us, like Dorothy, to be with those who wait, hope and yearn for peace.
Help us, like Jean, to endure hardships that prepare us to meet and love you more fully.
Help us, like Ita, to seize opportunities to be evangelized by walking with others who suffer.
Help us, like Maura, to believe you are present even in your apparent absence.
You, O Holy One, are our Healer and our Hope. May your blessing be upon us who are gathered here tonight remembering our beloved martyrs of El Salvador. For their lives continue to challenge us as we try to hear the urgent cry for justice in our world, and to make our lives paths of truth and peace.
God of surprises, we rely on your promise to be with us on our journey as we seek daily to follow you. Be with us, guiding our lives every step of the way.
MaryAl/ALL: Amen
[Any closing comments by Lee, or others at this graveside via ZOOM]
Final Song: ”I Hope" sung by Meah Pace with The Resistance Revival Chorus –Lyrics added
https://youtu.be/AjirwATs5r4
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Jean Donovan and Sr. Dorothy Kazel, OSU. Both worked together at Immaculate Conception parish in La Libertad, El Salvador.
Both died with two Maryknoll Sisters at the hands of Salvadoran national guard.
Dorothy is buried in Cleveland, OH, with members of her Ursuline Community, and—of course—Jean is with us here in Sarasota Memorial Cemetery with her parents.
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