New England memorial services honor nun slain in Brazil

Published: 2005-06-27

CHICOPEE, Mass. (CNS) -- A memorial service at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Chicopee honored the life of Sister Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who was murdered in Brazil in February after nearly 40 years of ministry to the desperately poor of that country. It was the second of five prayer services planned by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in the province covering western Massachusetts and Connecticut. The events honor the work of the Catholic nun and "the many people who have died in the struggle for justice in the Amazon Valley," said Sister Barbara Farrell, who presided at the Chicopee service. The gathering included a presentation that documented the missionary's life, her murder and the international repercussions that followed. Sister Farrell, who spent several months visiting the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Brazil in 1977, told The Catholic Observer, newspaper of the Springfield, Mass., Diocese, that Sister Stang had always wanted to be a missionary.

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