Brother of U.S. nun slain in Brazil recounts visit to her grave

Published: 2005-03-31

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- Although Dave Stang will be at his sister's April 2 memorial service in Belmont, Calif., his heart will be in the dark, wet, Brazilian rain forest where Sister Dorothy Stang was slain Feb. 12. "I couldn't feel closure until I went to her grave, saw the places and the people she worked with," Stang told Catholic San Francisco, archdiocesan newspaper, during a telephone interview from his home in Palmer Lake, Colo. In Brazil, he stood beneath two beautiful trees -- a mahogany and a mango -- that now form a sheltering roof over the grave of the Sister of Notre Dame de Namur. Two men shot Sister Dorothy, 74, in the face and head near Anapu, in the Brazilian state of Para. The killing occurred less than a week after the 73-year-old nun accused loggers and ranchers of threatening to kill rural workers. Sister Dorothy lived in Brazil's Amazon region for nearly four decades, working to protect the land rights of peasants and speaking out on the ecological dangers of deforestation.

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