Sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...

Ita Ford, M.M. (April 23, 1940 – December 2, 1980) was an American

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Maryknoll Sister who served as a missionary in Bolivia, Chile and El Salvador. She worked with the poor and war

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

. On December 2, 1980, she was beaten, raped, and murdered along with three fellow missionaries — Dorothy Kazel,

Maura Clarke Maura Clarke (January 13, 1931 – December 2, 1980), was an American Catholic Maryknoll sister who served as a missionary in Nicaragua and El Salvador. She worked with the poor and refugees in Central America from 1959 until her murder in 1980 ...

and Jean Donovan — by members of the military of El Salvador.

Life and work

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on April 23, 1940, Ford was the daughter of William Patrick Ford, an insurance man who took early retirement due to

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, ...

, and Mildred Teresa O'Beirne Ford, a public-school teacher. She had an older brother, William P. Ford (1936–2008) and a younger sister, Irene. The family lived in Brooklyn. William Patrick Ford was related to Austin B. Ford, whose son,

Francis Xavier Ford Francis Xavier Ford, MM was an American bishop of the Catholic Church and a Maryknoll missionary in China. Because of his torture by the Communist Chinese and death in prison in 1952, he is considered a martyr, and the cause for his canonization ...

(1892–1952), was the first

seminarian A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

to apply to the newly established

Maryknoll Maryknoll is a name shared by a number of related Catholic organizations, including the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers (also known as the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America or the Maryknoll Society), the Maryknoll Sisters, and the Mary ...

Fathers in 1911 and, after being ordained as a missionary in 1917, went to China, where he became a bishop and a martyr. He died in a

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

prison camp there in 1952, when his young "cousin" Ita was twelve.''"Here I Am, Lord": The Letters And Writings of Ita Ford'' by Ita Ford and Jeanne Evans (New York: Orbis Books, 2005) .Bishop Francis Xavier Ford
accessed online December 11, 2006. Although her mother taught in the public school system, Ita Ford was educated in parochial schools, beginning at age five in the Visitation Academy in Bay Ridge, run by the

Visitation Sisters , image = Salesas-escut.gif , size = 175px , abbreviation = V.S.M. , nickname = Visitandines , motto = , formation = , founder = Saint Bishop Francis de ...

, a semi-cloistered order. She attended

Fontbonne Hall Academy Fontbonne Hall is an all-girls, private, Roman Catholic high school in Brooklyn, New York. It was established in 1937 by the Sisters of St. Joseph, and is located within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. In 2013, in celebration of its 7 ...

, a high school operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph, where she worked on the school newspaper. Finally, from 1957 to 1961, she attended

Marymount Manhattan College Marymount Manhattan College is a private college on the Upper East Side of New York City. As of 2020, enrollment consists of 1,571 undergraduates with women making up 80.1% and men 19.9% of student enrollment. The college was founded in 1936. Hi ...

, founded by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. (Marymount Manhattan split from its mother school, Marymount College, in 1961).Martyrs of Central America
Following in her relative the Bishop's footsteps, Ford had confided in a high school friend at the age of fifteen that she not only wanted to be a nun, she specifically felt called to be a

missionary sister. Even before her college graduation in 1966, Ford had a vocational counselor advising her about her fitness for Maryknoll. She entered the

Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic __NOTOC__ The Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic, or simply Maryknoll Sisters, are a group of Roman Catholic religious women founded in the village of Ossining, Westchester County, New York, in 1912, six months after the 1911 creation of the Mar ...

at the age of twenty-one. Three years later, due to ill health, she had to leave the formation program. After working seven years as an editor at a publishing company, Ford reapplied and was again accepted by the Maryknoll

Sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

in 1971. After serving briefly in Bolivia in 1972, she moved to Chile a short time before the military coup there on September 11, 1973.Ita Ford
Peacemakers biography Ford lived in a poor shantytown with Sister Carla Piette, M.M., in Santiago, where they ministered to the needs of the people, especially those who lived in

poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse

. After spending a required "reflection year" in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, 1978–1979, before taking permanent

religious vows Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices, and views. In the Buddhism tradition, in particular within the Mahayana and Vajrayana tradition, many different kinds of re ...

in March 1980, Ford moved with Piette from Chile to

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south ...

, arriving the day of

Óscar Romero Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (15 August 1917 – 24 March 1980) was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador. He served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, the Titular Bishop of Tambeae, as Bishop of Santiago ...

's funeral. In June of that year, they began working with the Emergency Refugee Committee in Chalatenango. In this mission, Ford worked with the poor and war victims, providing food, shelter, transportation and burial. After the death of Sister Carla in a flash flood on August 23, 1980—a flood which nearly cost Ford her own life, saved only by Piette's help in pushing her from the overwhelmed vehicle—Ford was joined on the mission by

, a

sister who was already in El Salvador in contemplation of a mission assignment. Altogether, Piette and Ford had worked together in Chile and El Salvador for seven years, until their deaths barely three months apart on December 2, 1980.

Murder

References

External links

A Search for Justice
a documentary from

Retro Report Retro Report is a non-profit news organization that produces short-form documentaries for historical context of current news stories. The organization describes itself as a counterweight to the 24-hour news cycle. They have covered topics inclu ...

Ford v. Garcia Trial Background
Legal history section of PBS website on "Justice and the Generals" presentation in 2002. Accessed October 7, 2005.
The Maura Clarke – Ita Ford Center of Brooklyn, New York

Maryknoll Sisters website. Accessed October 7, 2005.

Memorial program in El Salvador in honor of the four churchwomen; accessed December 9, 2006.

(1993) accessed online December 9, 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Ita 1940 births 1980 deaths People from Brooklyn Marymount Manhattan College alumni Maryknoll Sisters 20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns Assassinated American activists Catholic martyrs of El Salvador Roman Catholic missionaries in Bolivia Roman Catholic missionaries in Chile Roman Catholic missionaries in El Salvador Deaths by firearm in El Salvador Female Roman Catholic missionaries American people murdered abroad People murdered in El Salvador Roman Catholic activists American Roman Catholic missionaries People of the Salvadoran Civil War Burials in El Salvador 1980 murders of U.S. missionaries in El Salvador American expatriates in Bolivia American expatriates in Chile American expatriates in El Salvador Activists from New York (state) Catholics from New York (state)

Life and work

Murder

References

Further reading

External links